Has tennis finally learned to stop worrying and love its ultra-long season?

Once upon a time, as the US Open came to an end, a predictable chorus of complaints would begin. They could be boiled down to five words: “The season is too long.” Or, alternatively, “The season is ludicrously long.” To many, including most casual fans, the last Grand Slam of the year seemed like a logical end point. But that didn’t stop the tours from globetrotting on, through Asia and back to Europe, for two or three more months.

It was generally agreed, even by many tour officials, that this was too taxing for players and overkill for fans. Unlike most other sports, tennis didn’t have an off-season that allowed us to forget about it for a while, then miss it, then relish its return. How could we tell the difference between a year that ended with Davis Cup in early December, and the following one, which began later the same month with the Australian Open tune-up events?

Recently, though, that familiar chorus has gone silent—or at least it hasn’t reached my ears. As this year’s Open wound down, there was little of that old sense of weariness about the dreaded fall season ahead. Novak Djokovic played a round of Davis Cup right away, several other top players joined Laver Cup the following week, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek are in Asia now, and virtually all of the top men and women are scheduled for the tours’ next mandatory showcases—Beijing for the WTA, Shanghai for the ATP. Nobody, that I’ve heard, has had a problem with it.

What accounts for this seeming sea change in attitudes about fall tennis? I’m guessing there are a number of factors.

First, the tours did try to address it. The ATP cut a couple weeks out of its year, bringing it to an end in November rather than December. The WTA went farther, wrapping things up by the end of October. Since then, though, some mission creep has set in. This year’s women’s season won’t close out until November 12th, with Billie Jean King Cup. And the men don’t draw down the curtain until November 25th, the final day of Davis Cup. Players are still at it for nearly 11 months of the year.

The pandemic probably had a bigger effect. Shutting down the tour in 2023, canceling Wimbledon, playing in empty arenas: These were traumatic events for anyone involved with tennis. We wondered whether the sport could survive the disruption and revenue loss. By that fall we were happy to see it played anywhere, anytime. Three years later, I think there’s still a sense that we should enjoy the game wherever and whenever we can get it. For better or worse, returning to China this fall has brought a lot of money back.

Around the same time as the pandemic, there was also a new focus on the sport’s rank and file. How could tennis spread the prize-money wealth more? How could it help more players make a living? How could the lower ranks be better organized? These weren’t questions that had often been asked in this star-heavy game in the past, and they hadn’t been part of the “Is the season too long?” debate, either. In truth, the vast majority of players want to enter as many tournaments as they can; only the elite can afford any extra time off. Maybe there’s more recognition of that fact now.

The aging of the game may also have changed attitudes about what the stars owe to the tours. Rafael Nadal never liked the fall. Roger Federer began to skip the spring. Serena Williams focused on the Slams. The ATP wrote rules that allowed players who were over 30, and had competed in a certain number of matches, to skip some otherwise-mandatory Masters 1000s. Fans were happy to watch the legends when they could, for as long as they could. This year Djokovic is skipping the Masters in Shanghai, but I haven’t heard anyone hold it against him.

As far as this season goes, it also may help that the races for No. 1—between Aryna Sabalenka and Swiatek, and Djokovic and Alcaraz—are still active. Alcaraz himself has increased interest in tennis this year, and will continue to do so wherever he goes.

Of course, it may only take an injury to Alcaraz, or Swiatek, or Coco Gauff, to bring back the chorus of complaints about the schedule. Until then, I hope we can keep that old discussion at bay. Once upon a time, I wrote my share of “Will we ever shorten the season?” columns. Now I’m looking forward to whatever comes our way, tennis-wise, for the rest of 2023.