"ATP f***ed up the schedule royally" - Andy Roddick addresses scheduling concerns brought forward by Novak Djokovic-led PTPA's lawsuit

Andy Roddick recently took umbrage at ATP's poor scheduling in light of the Novak Djokovic-led PTPA's lawsuit against tennis' governing bodies. The American suggested several changes, which included shortening the post-US Open swing, playing the ATP Finals in October, and organizing more ATP 250 tournaments.

PTPA, co-founded by Novak Djokovic in 2020, shocked the entire tennis universe last week as it filed a class action lawsuit against ATP, WTA, ITF, and ITIA over an alleged "systematic abuse and exploitation" of tennis players. In a rather damning statement, the "unsustainable" schedule employed by the pro tours was also brought up, claiming that it doesn't allow the players to get well-deserved rest.

Former World No. 1 Andy Roddick seemingly agrees with the players-only organization's complaints surrounding the current annual schedule on the ATP Tour, going by his recent comments on the latest episode of his "Served with Andy Roddick" podcast.

The 2003 US Open winner insisted that the season was far too long while asking ATP to "trim" the indoor hardcourt season that is okay from September to November. He was also upset at the men's governing body's lack of accountability and urged them to do better.

"ATP, you got to fix the schedule. You have to. It can't be 11 months. You have to buy back a lot of the 250s, You have to work backward from September after the US Open. Find a way to trim 4 weeks. That's the ideal scenario," Andy Roddick said on his podcast (from 1:18:39 onwards). "By the time the end of October comes in, in a perfect world, ATP Finals would have already been played somehow.

"ATP, so I'm going after you right now because I need you to have an ounce of credibility here. You f***ed up the schedule royally... all we hear is, 'We're going to have the best interest of shortening the season.' We've talked about actions and words on the show already. You talk about it all the time, but then what do you do?"

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Andy Roddick gives thoughts on Novak Djokovic-led PTPA and ATP's power struggle

Andy Roddick shares Novak Djokovic's opinion on two-week Masters events | Image Source: Getty

Nearly two years ago, ATP started changing the format of their ATP Masters 1000 tournaments by increasing the duration to two weeks. These changes were criticized by many top players back then, including Novak Djokovic - who admitted that going deep at two-week Masters events would affect the players' physical conditioning leading up to the Majors.

Roddick also spoke against the recent advent of two-week 1000-level events on his podcast. According to the 42-year-old, the above changes, among many others, called for a "restructuring" of the schedule.

"You're making every event 2 weeks, you're adding weeks to the calendar," Andy Roddick said (1:20:32). "There has to be a restructuring of the schedule. That's the biggest way for you to claw back player support, especially for the people who have been creating their most revenue and putting in the most work on court."

Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, has given a good account of himself at the 2025 Miami Open, which is one of the eight ATP Masters 1000 tournaments that is played over a period of two weeks. The Serb will face 24th-seeded Sebastian Korda for a place in the semifinals of the Florida event on Wednesday (March 25).