Iga Swiatek is fed up with “too long” season as she suggests key changes in scheduling that will benefit players and fans

Iga Swiatek has once again voiced her opinion against the scheduling of the WTA Tour and has suggested ways to make improvements.

Iga Swiatek is fed up with “too long” season as she suggests key changes in scheduling that will benefit players and fans

Iga Swiatek (Image via X)

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is fed up with the “too long” tennis season. The Polish ace, who has time and again talked about the reckless scheduling on the WTA Tour, has once again voiced her opinion on the issue. She opined that the sport is not headed in the right direction with such scheduling.

After her first-round win against Kamilla Rakhimova at the 2024 US Open, Swiatek was asked about the persisting problem with the scheduling and if there was any scope for improvement. She responded by stating that while she could only point out the issues, the real power lies with the people in charge.

YouTube video
It would be easy to fix it for people that are in charge, but they already made plenty of decisions and they promised so many things to tournaments. WTA, for example, that, you know, it would mean for them to change their mind, which is tricky, because it's business, you know. But I think players are aware that this is crazy what's going on (smiling), and the schedule is really tough.
Iga Swiatek said in her post-match press conference

The Pole also touched upon the effect this has on the players. She claimed that many other players also feel that they do not get enough time between tournaments to rest and reset. Swiatek also highlighted the problem with mandatory tournaments.

FS Video
So yeah, the season is, for sure, too long. These decisions about mandatory tournaments were shown to us, like, after. So we spoke to WTA about it that we want to at least be in the loop. But it would be nice for us to have some impact, because I don't think our sport is going in the right direction because of that.
Iga Swiatek added

The 23-year-old believes that fixing the problems with the schedule will not only benefit the players but also the fans as they would not like their favorites to pull out of important tournaments due to injuries.

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Iga Swiatek puts forth a few suggestions to the WTA

While Iga Swiatek admitted that she could not bring the necessary changes to the tennis schedule, the Polish ace did have some suggestions for the WTA. She said that it would be great if they could go back to the old system where it had only 11 or 12 mandatory tournaments and players were not forced to play six WTA 500 tournaments.

Iga Swiatek Cincinnati Open
Iga Swiatek Cincinnati Open (via X)
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. We have to play the six 500 tournaments, which basically is not necessary sometimes because we can perform well in 1000, and have a great ranking, but they promise that so we have to adjust.
Iga Swiatek opined

Swiatek said that going back to the old system where players could choose to skip or pick the WTA 500 tournaments according to their convenience would be better. She also clarified that she has nothing against the WTA 500 tournaments but “it’s hard to squeeze it in.”

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