Wozniacki: Schedule Demands Are Painful Reality

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Wozniacki: Schedule Demands Are Painful Reality

White taping wrapped Caroline Wozniacki's left calf during her Rogers Cup opener.

Frustration burns from schedule demands, rather than the pain in her leg was foremost on Wozniack's mind when she met with the media following her 7-5, 7-5 loss to Belinda Bencic in Toronto.

More: Fresh from Victory over Cancer, Duval Now Winning Tennis Matches

The fifth-ranked Dane, who was also troubled by the injury in her loss to Varvara Lepchenko in Stanford last week, took a shot at the demands of the WTA schedule rules, which dictated she play the Rogers Cup or receive a zero-point penalty.

"I think the WTA is all about, you know, they're like we want the players healthy, we want them to play at their best level at every tournament and we want to make it tough for them," Wozniacki said in her post-match press conference. "And that's good, but the fact that they're pushing you to play whenever—if you are not feeling 100 percent—is not okay. I haven't practiced for a week because I wanted to make sure that I was 100 percent healthy, and I went out there and actually my leg and my back is feeling pretty good, so that's good. But today was the first time that I've practiced for a week."

In response to Wozniacki's comments, the WTA released this article to clarify its rules and the reasoning behind them.

Wozniacki, who plans to play Cincinnati next week, is at her best on hard courts and generally plays a hard-court heavy schedule. She contested quarterfinals or better in four of her first six hard-court events this season—including reaching the Auckland final where she fell to Venus Williams and winning her 23rd career title in Kuala Lumpur—since then she's posted a 3-4 record on hard courts.

The two-time U.S. Open finalist said schedule requirements of Top 10 players can be a pain as "you're forced to play."

Caroline Wozniacki

Playing through an injury while trying to meet the demands of mandatory play, practice and recovery while facing the pressures of defending her U.S. Open runner-up ranking points later this month are all challenges Wozniacki faces.

"I want to be able to play up to my best tennis, and you're not going to do that if you don't practice. But the rules if you're a Top 10 player are so that this was my commitment tournament, you're forced to play," Wozniacki said. "If you don't, you get huge money fines. You get zero points to your ranking. Plus they wouldn't allow me to play small tournament in this half of the year, which is crazy.

"I've been on the players council for a long time and I'm not anymore because these rules are things that players complain about all the time, but we can't do anything about it. You know, we all want to win. We all want to do our best, but we all want to do that on our best level and when we're 100 percent healthy."

In the video above, Wozniacki discusses why New York's crazines makes the U.S. Open her favorite major, her most memorable match and what she's been cooking up lately.

Photo credit: Phillip Sutherland/corleve

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