Iga Swiatek criticized the relentless tennis calendar on Sunday, saying gamers shouldn’t be compelled to compete in additional than 20 tournaments a yr to keep up their rankings.
The previous world No. 1 (now ranked fourth) described being trapped in a system the place she had to decide on between representing her nation and specializing in herself after she skipped Poland’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in April.
“The scheduling is tremendous intense. It is too intense. There is not any level for us to play over 20 tournaments in a yr,” Swiatek instructed reporters when requested concerning the largest problem to gamers when it comes to psychological well being. “Generally we have to sacrifice taking part in to your nation as a result of we have to sustain with taking part in these WTA 500s, for instance, as a result of we’ll get a zero within the rating.”
Swiatek has beforehand talked about challenges offered by the tennis calendar, citing its impression on psychological well being earlier than final yr’s US Open and blaming a February loss on a scarcity of preparation.
“I feel these form of obligations and the principles about obligatory tournaments simply put strain on us,” she mentioned Sunday. “… I feel folks would nonetheless watch tennis, perhaps much more, if we performed much less tournaments. The standard can be higher.”
The lengthy tennis schedule was one of many cornerstones of the lawsuit filed by the Skilled Tennis Gamers’ Affiliation in opposition to the game’s governing our bodies in March after the union described it as “unsustainable.”
Swiatek is the eighth seed at Wimbledon this yr, and she or he faces Polina Kudermetova within the first spherical Tuesday.
The clay-court specialist with 4 French Open titles fell within the semifinals at Roland Garros this yr, and she or he rapidly switched her focus to grass, which has traditionally been her weakest floor.
She reached her first grass-court ultimate Saturday on the Dangerous Homburg Open, the place she was left in tears after shedding to prime seed Jessica Pegula. However Swiatek mentioned she is comfortable together with her enchancment on grass as she involves grips with the sooner floor.
“It isn’t like an enormous change. It isn’t like 180 levels change. I would not say now immediately all the things is ideal, as a result of it is nonetheless a tough floor. It is nonetheless tough,” Swiatek mentioned. “Yearly it feels prefer it’s a bit bit simpler to get used to the floor, after which you’ve got extra time to only develop as a participant.”
Reuters contributed to this report.