Iga Swiatek says her feeling is that the authorities are now listening “much more” to players when they air concerns about the schedule but highlights that the situation is still not perfect with the high number of mandatory events that the top players are obliged to play.
Since basically establishing herself as one of the faces of women’s tennis in 2022, the Polish five-time Grand Slam champion has often criticized the WTA calendar and called for changes. And when it was revealed last year that the WTA was planning to add more mandatory tournaments for this season, the 23-year-old was one of the first to speak out against it.
During the US Open, Swiatek criticized the tight calendar. After losing in the quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, she pulled out of the WTA 500 tournament in Seoul and also missed the WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan. While it hasn’t been made public, all the chances are that the new world No. 2 was fined by the WTA for missing a couple of big tournaments.
At the WTA Finals in Riyadh – which is Swiatek’s first tournament in two months – the Pole was asked to address her criticism of the schedule and if the officials are listening to her complaints. Answering the question, the 23-year-old noted that she is aware there is a business-side to all of this but also added that players can’t risk their health.
“Well, I feel like when I first came to WTA, it was pretty tricky. Now I think that they are listening to us much more. I’ve seen some progress in terms of the communication. Yeah, some things have been decided already in terms of the calendar and mandatory tournaments. It’s something that we kind of can’t take back because this is business, this is our contract, this is money. For sure it’s not going to be easy. It depends. I guess it’s all going to be about proper planning, making your own decisions kind of, no matter what’s going on with the rankings, mandatory tournaments sometimes. For sure for us as players, the priority should be our health in general,” the four-time French Open champion said.
Iga Swiatek© X screenshot
Swiatek hopes something positive for players can be done
So far, the WTA hasn’t made any official statements regarding the complaints that have been made about their calendar over the last couple of years. But that doesn’t mean that something won’t happen behind the scenes as the Polish tennis star hopes that the players and the authorities can sit after the season ends and see if something can be done to help both sides.
“We’ll see. For now, like, this has been first year with all these mandatory tournament obligations. Maybe at the end of the season there’s going to be a good time to give some feedback and talk about it internally with WTA. For now obviously we need to be ready for the season to be as long as it is. I’m sure for fans, it’s exciting. I’m going to prepare myself, as well, to be ready to play everything,” Swiatek added.
Swiatek on making big decisions and dealing with them
While she was taking a break, the Pole also ended her three-year partnership with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski and hired Wim Fissette, who split with Naomi Osaka after the US Open.
Wim Fissette© Wim Fissette/Instagram – Fair Use
When the 23-year-old decided that she and Wiktorowski should go their separate ways and that Fissette was the coach she needed, it didn’t happen without previous overthinking. However, the world No. 2 still feels she is now better with making decisions and refuses to be negative.
“Well, sometimes it’s hard to make a decision. But when you do it, I don’t have any regrets usually. I’m an over-thinker. If I make a decision, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a good one. So basically I trust myself in that way. But for sure it was much harder, like, couple of years ago to make these kind of decisions,” Swiatek explained.
“Now I feel like I know a bit more. Probably in the future I’m going to have to also make some decisions. You can see the most experienced players on tour, they are a bit older, skipping some tournaments, but actually being able to play their best games on Grand Slams, the biggest events that they really care about. I think like Novak, for example, is a great example of that. We can learn from people like that.”
After the WTA Finals, the five-time Grand Slam champion’s season won’t be over after she recently changed her mind and announced that she will represent Poland at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Malaga between November 13-20.