Iga Swiatek has been a longtime critic of the WTA calendar and is not particularly impressed with the 2024 version either.
Swiatek has aired many grievances over the WTA's handling of the calendar in the past. She was particularly annoyed by how close the WTA Finals and the Billie Jean King Cup were.
She even held talks with the organizations to try and see whether another solution was possible. The closeness of these competitions is at the root of why she skipped over the competition multiple times, leading to a backlash from both home and media abroad.
She was also criticized by the legend Billie Jean King herself. In a recent interview with Polish Rzeczpospolita, Swiatek talked about the 2024 calendar, which she didn't find impressive.
There is room for improvement. As players, we are dissatisfied with the calendar for next year and the increase in the number of mandatory tournaments and restrictions related to withdrawing from them. We want to change this. We need more balance and time to get back home.
Sometimes, however, we beat our heads against the wall. Some decisions seem to be the result of promises made to third parties, federations and tournament organizers. We find out about them after the fact. This causes frustration. Only a handful of players were aware of the calendar reform and the WTA cannot lead to such a situation again, since it considers itself an organization created for tennis players.
The things Swiatek said in that interview really don't paint a very good picture. We've heard for a long time about the need to bring the players and the organization closer together, but with time they seemingly only grow apart.
That doesn't bode well for the future of a sport that is already quite fragmented as it is. Hopefully, things improve with a potential ATP and WTA merger, which is one of the rumored solutions.
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