Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Coco Gauff could miss a chunk of tour events as WTA plans massive changes in the calendar

WTA plans to not allow any top-30 players in WTA-250 tournaments from 2024

Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Coco Gauff could miss a chunk of tour events as WTA plans massive changes in the calendar

Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka

Top-30 WTA players will no longer be allowed to compete in WTA-250 tournaments from 2024 as per the new regulations. This is going to be a huge loss for the tournaments as they depend a lot on the appearance of top players every year. A section of tennis fans has already started pointing out the issues that could happen with this regulation.

It is common for players to have a favorite smaller tournament in their calendar every year. For example, Novak Djokovic plays the Serbian Open, an ATP-250 tournament every year. This year since it was canceled, his family organized one in Bosnia in the name of Srpska Open. The stage was almost similar for the top WTA players as well.

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As the smaller tournaments are trying to increase the visibility and ticket rates by the inclusion of top players, this decision from WTA is seen as totally strange. Especially when the ATP has no restriction on their top players like this. This decision will create a storm in the coming days in the tennis world for sure.

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Also Read: ATP Barcelona Open 2023 Final: Carlos Alcaraz vs Stefanos Tsitsipas Live Stream, Match Timing, Prediction, and Preview

Many of the WTA-250 tournaments used to be star-packed

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The WTA-250 tournaments sometimes used to be really star-packed. Especially in the grass season when the preparatory tournaments for Wimbledon are few, top players used to participate in the WTA-250 tournaments on grass like Rothesay Open and Rothesay Classic. Major WTA-250 tournaments are played on hard courts and July has the most number of those level tournaments.

January and February have four WTA tournaments each. This includes the ASB Classic at Auckland and Hobart International tournaments which are used by top players as preparatory ones for the Australian Open. According to the WTA calendar, no WTA-250 was scheduled for the month of March. April has one WTA-250 tournament in Colombia. This is on clay.

While May witnesses two WTA-250 tournaments on clay and June four (all played on grass), July has 6 WTA-250 tournaments, three on hard and three on clay. August has two WTA-250 tournaments — both played on hard courts before the US Open. No tournaments have been decided after the month of August this year.

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