Iga Swiatek will miss the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals despite Poland getting a wild card entry into the event.
Iga Swiatek always spoke highly about her country, Poland, noting multiple times over the years how proud she is to represent her country. One of her biggest dreams in tennis is to win a gold medal for her country, but generally, she's quite proud of playing for Poland regardless of which competition it is.
Even so, her track record is not the best because she opted out of playing the Billie Jean King Cup Finals a couple of times, which even earned the criticism of the legend Billie Jean King herself.
Swiatek has been quite open about her reasons for it, and it's generally to do with the brutal schedule, as the event comes days after the WTA Finals conclude.
She's played at that event two times already and will play this year, again creating trouble with the schedule. She hasn't spoken about it this year, but it's now been confirmed that she won't play for her country at the event.
Poland was given a wild card entry into the competition, but the team nomination doesn't feature Swiatek. The country will be represented by Magda Linette, Magdalena Frech, Katarzyna Kawa, and Weronika Falkowska.
It's a pretty decent team but unlikely to seriously challenge for the trophy without Swiatek, whose presence would have been a huge boost. She, like in years prior, will focus on the WTA Finals, where she'll be one of the favourites after her recent surge at the China Open.
We'll see if she posts any kind of update like in years past, but for now, she hasn't spoken about it. She promised to talk with the WTA to improve the schedule for players, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.
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