Mark Petchey’s comments on tennis stars slamming the ATP Tour calendar could put Emma Raducanu in an awkward spot when it comes to her friendship with Carlos Alcaraz. The tennis coach, who worked with Raducanu for four months earlier this year and has a close relationship with her, recently lambasted players who publicly “firebomb” their own tours despite holding their tongues on the Saudi Masters 1000 tournament due to the money at stake.

Speaking on the Tennis Channel, Petchey said: “What I disagree with massively is that they have a seat at the table in terms of these discussions, and they publicly go out and firebomb their own tour, which I think is completely unacceptable, I think from a commercial point of view. And we haven’t heard anything about putting on a brand-new Masters 1000. No one’s grumbled about that because there’s a huge amount of dollars going into that tournament.”

A new one-week ATP Masters 1000 tournament based in Saudi Arabia will be added to the calendar as of 2028, adding to the pulling power of the Gulf State, which hosts the WTA Finals and the Next Gen ATP Finals. Alcaraz has been one of the leading voices in complaining about the number of events that players participate in, claiming that he didn’t want to attend certain tournaments.

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