Iga Swiatek has spoken again about her frustrations with the tennis schedule, arguing that it must be changed to avoid injuries and maintain the high quality of matches.
Despite her misgivings about the schedule, Swiatek's consistency over the last few years has been incredible. She recently reached 118 weeks as the world No. 1, surpassing the great Justine Henin.
The only major title the Pole won outside the French Open was at the 2022 US Open. Her run to glory in New York included an epic semifinal triumph against Aryna Sabalenka, recovering from a break down in the third set against the Belarusian.
However, Martina Navratilova thinks Sabalenka is the favorite to secure the title this year at Flushing Meadows this year. The world No. 2 had a confidence-boosting victory against Swiatek in the Cincinnati Open semifinal.
Swiatek did not just generate headlines in Cincinnati for her work on the court. The Pole received much attention for criticizing the tennis schedule, saying it is too long and there are too many tournaments.
The 23-year-old was again asked about the subject in her press conference after her opening-round win at the US Open. She said the number of mandatory tournaments makes working on things off the court difficult.
"But I think players are aware that this is crazy what's going on and the schedule is really tough. I know that, I mean, I spoke about it in Cincinnati, for example, and there are people saying that, oh, I don't have to play so many tournaments."
"But truth, like the fact is that we have so many mandatory tournaments that we literally need to, you know, show up and we don't have time to, like, work on stuff."
Swiatek feels the schedule change would benefit both fans and players. Fans would see better quality from the players because they would have more time off, and players would not have to deal with as many injuries.
"I think it needs to be changed, because also, I think it's going to be better for fans. Because they're not going to see their favorite players, like, pull out or getting so much, I think. And we could present better quality, I would say. I mean, we could."
The world No. 1 also questioned whether there was any benefit to having so mandatory events. Starting next year, top WTA players must play all four Grand Slams, ten WTA-1000s, and six WTA-500s. Swiatek feels the WTA Tour was just as interesting with fewer mandatory tournaments.
"Well, would you say that, for example, the system that WTA had, like, I don't know, 10 years ago, was bad? Because they had, like, 11 mandatory tournaments or 12. I'm not sure, honestly. Now everybody is going to check."
"But I would say tennis was as interesting ten years ago with the other system that we had, it was fine. And players, if they wanted to play 500 tournaments to get their ranking better, they did that, but they weren't forced too."
Players burning out and sustaining severe injuries are real issues during the grueling tennis schedule. Observing whether more players back Swiatek's words and call for change will be fascinating.
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