Why Carlos Alcaraz thinks playing 3 exhibitions in the off-season and complaining about the hectic tennis calendar can co-exist

Carlos Alcaraz ended his 2025 season on a banger note last month, finishing as the year-end World No. 1 for the second time in his career. Although he lost to Jannik Sinner in the final of the ATP Finals, the Spaniard had done enough by then to secure the ranking after missing out last year.

After the stint in Turin, Alcaraz was expected to play at the Davis Cup Finals. But an injury he sustained during the clash with Sinner ruled him out of the tournament, and he had to watch Spain finish as the runners-up from the sidelines.

Now, many would expect the World No. 1 to take his time recovering from home before the start of the new season. That will not be the case, however. Alcaraz is scheduled for a rather busy off-season, taking part in as many as three exhibition tournaments before then.

For starters, he will play against Frances Tiafoe in New Jersey, followed by one against Joao Fonseca in Miami. He will also participate in mixed doubles in Miami, joining Jessica Pegula and Amanda Anisimova. After that, the Spaniard is set to go to South Korea for an exhibition tournament against Sinner just before the Australian Open.

This is not without criticism, of course. Carlos Alcaraz being one of the most vocal voices in the ATP Tour against the tennis calendar's hectic and rigorous scheduling, fans think that it is hypocritical of him to play at all in the off-season break.

Even American tennis legend Jimmy Connors and his son Brett could not stop themselves from taking a swipe at Alcaraz, saying in their recent podcast episode:

"Going into the new year, let's see how many exhibitions Carlos Alcaraz plays in the next month. Well, I mean, the whole thing is....it's the money-making season," Brett Connors said.

"Yeah, it's the money-making season, like you haven't made enough anyway. It's going to be interesting to see. Do they force it and play more exhibitions and go into the Australian tired?" Jimmy Connors added.

Why Carlos Alcaraz does not think these criticisms are valid

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All that said, what does the man himself think? For Carlos Alcaraz, these criticisms do not make any sense, considering the very nature of exhibitions. The six-time Grand Slam champ pointed out that unlike competitive tournaments, they are not demanding and at all, and can even help players practice better.

“First of all, it’s normal that people think that way and they don’t understand why we’re complaining about the calendar and then we set up the exhibition matches,” Alcaraz told The Associated Press in an interview last week.

“But for me, the main difference is that, at a tournament, you’ve got to keep your focus and it’s really physically and mentally demanding for one week and a half. And an exhibition is just one day. You just stay focused, just warm up, just practice not that much — for one match," he added.

The World No. 1 went on about how he usually approaches these exhibitions, saying that he used them as a platform to try out new tactics that he did not get the chance to hone during real matches.

"You could approach the exhibitions in different ways. You can [do it] just to have fun, playing good tennis, good shots and having fun. Or you can approach them playing really serious and [use] tactics and trying different things you will want to do later, in an event,” he said.

“So for these matches, I’m going to play well, I’m going to take it really seriously, but at the same time, I’m going to try to have as much fun as I can. To me, that’s what matters. When I’m having fun on court, I can show my best tennis.”

Putting Carlos Alcaraz's 2025 match numbers into perspective

In 2025, Alcaraz played 19 official tournaments on the ATP Tour, one fewer than 38-year-old Novak Djokovic and one more than World No. 2 Jannik Sinner.

To put that number into perspective further, World No. 3 Alexander Zverev played 24, American No. 1 Taylor Fritz played 23 and World No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime played 28. The player who played the most tournaments this year was World No. 26 Luciano Darderi, with a whopping 35.

In terms of matches played, Alcaraz played 80 -- winning 71 and losing nine, giving him the best win/loss ratio of any player for the season (eight titles). Sinner ranked behind him at No. 2, winning 58 and losing six (six titles).

Edited by Shyam Kamal