If until a few years ago only the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells and the Miami Open (formerly Key Biscayne – ed.) had the 96-player format with a bye for the 32 seeds in the first round and an ATP Masters 1000 tournament spread over two weeks, now this has also spread to the Mutua Madrid Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italian in Rome.
ATP is also thinking of applying this extension of time and draw spread over two weeks also for the Canadian Open in Montreal and Toronto and for the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. And it should be considered that now the Shanghai Rolex Masters also has this format.
However, the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments with the two-week format are dividing fans, insiders and media. There are those who like these long and new formats and there is, in the same way, a part of fans who are not at all enthusiastic about this format and preferred when most of the tournaments in this category were played over a week with a smaller field of player participation.
ATP has already shown that it intends to build a calendar based on major events: the strengthening of the ATP Masters 1000 over almost two weeks goes in this direction. Fewer but high level ATP events.
