Australian Alex de Minaur has been the beneficiary of a scheduling row at the Paris Masters that forced weary last-16 opponent Jannik Sinner to pull out just 90 minutes before they were due to clash. 

Organisers of one of the sport’s biggest Masters 1000 events have been under fire for a schedule that meant Italian Sinner only won his previous match at 2:37am of the same day he was slated to play de Minaur in the afternoon.

Sinner’s Australian coach, Darren Cahill, led the protests, after the world number four won a three-set match against Mackenzie McDonald in a match that started after midnight.

“2:45 am. Happy for the Jannik win, but zero care for the players [sic] welfare with the Paris schedule,” he wrote on his Instagram stories.

Other players slammed the ATP, including Norwegian world number eight Casper Ruud.

Three-time grand slam winner Stan Wawrinka said: “It’s crazy … tournament doesn’t care and ATP just follow what the tournament will want.”

It comes after world number one Aryna Sabalenka labelled the women’s tour “disrespectful” for the state of the court for the WTA Finals in Cancún, Mexico.

The on-song Sinner, who had won two of his previous three tournaments, including a triumph at the Vienna Open on Sunday, confirmed he was pulling out of the match against de Minaur about an hour-and-a-half before the scheduled 5pm start.

“I finished the match when it was almost 3 in the morning and didn’t go to bed until a few hours later. I had less than 12 hours to rest and prepare for the next game,” Sinner wrote on X.

“The weeks ahead with the ATP Finals at home and the Davis Cup will be very important, now I focus on preparing for these important events. See you in Turin! Forza!”

The walkover, though, was a surprise boost for 24-year-old de Minaur, who has been given a passage through to a quarterfinal meeting with fifth seed Andrey Rublev, who defeated Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-3.