The ATP has announced important changes to the calendar for the 2023 season. In addition to the inclusion of the new United Cup, what stands out the most is the absence of Novak Djokovic’s home tournament. In the list of announced tournaments it can be seen that Belgrade will no longer host an ATP 250, which will move to the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, which will prevent Serbian fans from seeing Novak Djokovic live in their country next year.
In addition, the other news is that the ATP 250 Sofia Open tournament will not be played, having been rescheduled for the first week of the year, when a tournament will be held in Australia with a venue yet to be determined.
The ATP has published the schedule that will be played in the 2023 season with the main change being the extension of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, Rome and Shanghai to 12 days, with the inclusion of 96 players instead of the 56 of the current season.
Thus, these three Masters 1000 will join Miami and Indian Wells for a duration of two weeks, which will go hand in hand with the changes in the ATP 250 tournaments. The structure of the program for 2023 remains the same, with the four Grand Slam , the Next Gen ATP Finals, the Nitto ATP Finals, the nine Masters 1000 and the ATP 500 and 250 which are slightly modified due to the changes in the Masters 1000.
The season will kick off on December 30 with the ATP Cup in Australia and the first ATP singles tournament will be the ATP 250 in Pune on January 2. In this way, the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, will begin on January 16 and we will have to wait until March 8 to see the first Masters 1000 of the year in California with Indian Wells.
Djokovic is in perfect shape
Novak Djokovic remains on course to become Tennis’ most decorated man despite falling behind Rafael Nadal in Grand Slam wins after a problematic 2022 marred by the inability to enter either the Australian or US Open.
“An Olympic medal, especially gold, is always a big wish,” Novak Djokovic told Radio Television of Serbia. “I rewound my match with Zverev in Tokyo many times, trying to figure out what went wrong,” he said.
“I played superbly up to that point, but I did feel I was running on fumes, both mentally and physically”. The Paris Olympics tennis tournament will be staged at the iconic Roland Garros Stadium, which will ensure 2024 is a huge year for both the venue and clay court tennis.
