ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi has suggested that the elongated Masters 1000 events are here to stay, despite the protestations of many top players.

Last month, the Italian outlined bold £262million proposals to restructure the ATP Tour under it’s ‘OneVision’ plan. That included a proposed £18.7m career-support fund, bigger bonus pools, more ranking points for deeper runs at the biggest tournaments, extra player compensation, and more.

While many are said to be in favour of these plans, bar doubles players who could see their discipline shrink a great deal, the game’s biggest stars are unlikely to be happy that the two-week-long Masters tournaments are not going anywhere.

Indeed, the recent Paris Masters was very well received as players put on a great show over the course of a week. And while Gaudenzi understands their concerns, he suggested they cannot have their cake and eat it too.

The former world No 18 said when he took on this role in early 2020, players wanted more prize money and transparency about the future of the sport.

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One way to do that is by extending the Masters 1000 tournaments, with Gaudenzi revealing that approximately 40% of the sport’s revenue comes from “event days and ticketing”.

The 53-year-old added that the expanded 96-man draws, up from the 56-strong fields at the Paris Masters and Monte Carlo Masters, also leads to more jobs and more money in the pockets of lower ranked players.

He said on Andy Roddick’s Served podcast, “When I came on board the main ask from the players at least from the players at the time was more jobs, more money to more players, sort of more transparency also we want to have the visibility.

“And those things have been achieved in that plan negotiated for about two years, so similar approach, but negotiated two years with both tournaments and players, players council and so forth.

“Obviously it was clear that one of the compromise was the Masters wanted more room to grow, they wanted more a little bit of a lead for investment, a 30-year plan for investment because tennis is very infrastructure heavy. And they wanted more days because around 40% of revenue in our business is still event day and ticketing.

“Media is still a small part, but event day and sponsorship is still the biggest part. Very simple model. There are 15 days, highly profitable, revenue are roughly four to five times our combined masters.”

In the past, Carlos Alcaraz said one week Masters are “better for tennis” and you don’t end up getting more rest, despite what its proponents have claimed.

Novak Djokovic also expressed his opposition to the longer Masters, saying it made tennis’ schedule even more “heavy” and  Jannik Sinner said last year that he “loves” one-week tournaments.

Finally, world No 1 Alexander Zverev previously said, “I have not heard a single player say that they love the two-week Masters events. I don’t even think the fans like that.”

Gaudenzi admitted he envisaged there would be pushback from the players over longer tournaments, but compromises had to be made to make the sport more profitable.

He added, “I wasn’t naive and I knew the top players weren’t going to like the 12 days, which is technically 10 for them because they have a buy because basically drives more time on site.

“So that that was that was the argument that was the discussion we had very openly and I said ‘Guys, look it’s going to drive more value, it’s going to drive more revenue to the players, it’s going to drive more revenue to more players,’ which is one of the objectives you’re asking me.”

Gaudenzi hinted that the huge amounts of money that have been been pumped into the Masters events in Cincinnati and Rome have come from these expanded events.

Plus, Shanghai and Madrid are planning to build more roofs over their stadiums and Canada has a “big plan” for the future. Ergo, tournament organisers have used the extra funds to improve their infrastructure and facilities.

In summary, it doesn’t seem the longer Masters are going anywhere as they make everyone a lot of money.