Players in PPA dissatisfied with WPT schedule

Last week the World Padel Tour's competition schedule for 2023 was released. 
Now the players, through the PPA association, are expressing dissatisfaction with the schedule. 

An email arrived at the World Padel Tour offices only 48 hours after the WPT schedule was published. A group of players from the PPA (Professional Padel Association) sent a letter in which they emphasised their disagreement with different aspects of the new calendar.

The Argentinean site Olé reports.

In the letter, the players expressed their surprise at splitting the Open category events into Open 1000 and Open 500. Although WPT was announced as the "new" Open 500, from the side of the athletes understand the opposite.

WPT announced that the Open 1000 will have four more couples, so the number of participants is increased and directly affects the first four couples of the ranking, who will have to start competing in the round of 32 and not in the round of 16.

This point is vital for the sporting year as there are only three Open 500s on the WPT calendar (Reus, Alicante, and Santander) compared to the 18 Open 1000s scheduled.

The last point refers to failing to publish the calendar in advance: it must be made official "at least one month before the start of the season.

According to Olé, they also complain that the Abu Dhabi Masters (18-26 February) overlap with the qualifiers for the Paraguay Open 1000, 24-27 February. 

It is unclear what will happen to the players who have not signed the World Padel Tour's contract proposal. At the moment, only Alvaro Cepero has gone public and said he has signed.