ATP 'forcing injured players to attend tournaments' as huge backlash sparked over fines

has revealed that the tours are forcing players to attend tournaments and complete their commitments or face a fine.

There has been plenty of backlash after the ATP extended most of their Masters 1000 events to last two weeks, with recently

Robson and co-pundit weren't surprised to see the world No. 11 blast the men's tour as they explained injured players were made to turn up just to pull out.

Tsitsipas took to social media to slam the longer Masters format last week. The Greek star it made tournaments "drag" and left players with no recovery time. He added: "If the goal was to ease the calendar, extending every 1000 to two weeks is a backwards move."

The 26-year-old then during a Sky Sports interview at the ATP Finals on Thursday. "The Masters 1000 new concept hasn't been great and I haven't really been a huge fan of it and I'm willing to express it, I don't mind because that's my opinion," he said.

After hearing Tsitsipas' honest thoughts, Robson and Henman admitted many players likely felt the same as they shed light on the demands of competing on the Tour.

"I feel like he's kind of probably behind the scenes been talking about this for quite a while but now has seen no progress or no resolution or maybe not even much feedback from the tour," Robson explained.

"And so he's clearly gotten to the point where he feels that he should say it publicly."

Tsitsipas isn't the only one who has struggled with the demanding calendar. Henman added: "We've heard say that he's just absolutely exhausted,

"It must be hard for the tour to listen to that when it's only recently that they've been looking to extend these Masters 1000s and the reality is they are in tournament environments so much longer."

Explaining the effects on the players, the former world No. 4 continued: "If you're winning matches, which those top players are, then you're not getting any opportunity of actually resting and recovering and stepping away, giving you a chance for your body and your mind to recover but then actually also working on things to improve your game."

Some have tried to offer solutions to the relentless schedule - Jannik Sinner recently said he would pick and choose which events to play so he could rest. Even ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi

But Robson has addressed why this isn't so simple, with players all but forced to show up even if they wanted to withdraw. "It's a mandatory, you get fined," she said.

"You have obviously your right to say that you're injured and most likely you are injured because it's been such a long season.

"But more often than not, you have to go on-site to do the withdrawal and so it doesn't even work out like a rest, it doesn't even work out like you're just able to take the week off because you still have those commitments elsewhere.

"You still have to do your media commitments, your tournament aces as they're called, and it's kind of relentless. So it's difficult for players to find the right balance at the moment."