Former World No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov has slammed Iga Swiatek over her comments regarding the tennis schedule.
Swiatek has won a Tour-leading five WTA titles this year, including the 2024 French Open in June. She competed in her second Olympics earlier this month, winning a bronze medal for her country.
The Pole was in action at the Cincinnati Open this past week, competing in her 14th tournament at all levels this season. She played her 62nd match of the year at the WTA 1000 event, where she lost in the semifinal to her rival, Aryna Sabalenka, in straight sets.
But Swiatek was the top story following her quarterfinal win over Mirra Andreeva a couple of days ago. She opined that the tennis calendar is grueling and warned that it would take a toll on the players' emotional and physical well-being.
In an interview with Sky Sports, the WTA World No. 1 insisted that there are "too many tournaments", which have made tennis "less fun." She called on tennis authorities to listen to players' grievances and act on them in the future.
Former ATP player Kafelnikov took issue with Swiatek's claims and ranted on X (formerly Twitter), stating that nobody was forcing the 23-year-old to play. The Russian, instead, brutally criticized the five-time Grand Slam champion for complaining.
"is someone pushing you to play ??? All you fricking do is complain!! I’ll tell you what you deserve ! You deserve to get paid a lot less than you do now!! How about that??"
Kafelnikov's post, which has clocked at least one million impressions, was met with fury and rage from several tennis fans who defended Swiatek. Tennis journalist Bastien Fachan wrote, "She's way more successful at 23 than you were in your entire career, sit this one out champ."
One user wrote, "How can a former pro talk such sh*t. You should be ashamed of yourself. You can only dream of achieving what she already has. What she has said is 100% correct and speaking out is not complaining."
WTA player Daria Kasatkina shared a graphical representation of Swiatek and Kafelnikov's careers and mocked her fellow Russian for having earned less in career prize money despite being retired.
Two fans made a valid point to counter Kafelnikov's controversial tweet by tabling the consequences, ranging from monetary fines to point penalties, of missing mandatory tournaments on the calendar.
"Is someone pushing you to play?" How about making just a quick search in the rules, I beg. There are point penalties, monetary fines, and from this year more countable results for the ranking and more mandatory tournaments."
"There's this thing called mandatory tournaments, and unless you have an injury, you have to or there are penalties. Taking a 0 on the points plus maybe even a fine. 6 WTA 500s, 10 WTA 1000s, and 4 GS is a lot. Even if they keep the 12 day 1000s, no 500s should be mandatory."
"That 0 on the points is bigger than it seems, btw. It takes points away from a next best result, it's not like every event you play ends up on your ranking when you're playing that much."