By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday August 19, 2024
Iga Swiatek’s comments about the sheer brutality of the modern tennis schedule has many talking. When the World No.1 speaks, people’s ears perk up, even if she is expressing a sentiment that has been echoed by many top players in recent years: the tennis calendar is way too packed!
Speaking to Sky Sports in Cincinnati, Swiatek gave reporters keen insight into exactly how she views the topic.
“Obviously, it’s not our decision, but I think we have too many tournaments in the season,” she said. “It’s not going to end well. It makes tennis less fun for us. I love playing in all these places, but it’s pretty exhausting and I think most of the WTA players would tell you that, especially when you’re playing at a high level.”
Before we continue, it must be said that Swiatek comes from a completely unique perspective at the top of the WTA’s food chain. She wins a lot of matches, and therefore plays a lot of grinding weeks on tour.
The 23-year-old has already played 62 matches and will likely play another 20 or 30. That’s the lay of the land when you are a steady force at the top of the sport. Swiatek has always made it clear how much she values her rest, but with so many events to play – many of them mandatory – she’s often running on fumes at tournaments, both mentally and physically.
“I don’t think it should be like that because we deserve to rest a little bit more. Maybe people are going to hate me (for saying that),” she added.
The Pole’s comments can be viewed as a tad tone deaf by players who, unlike Swiatek, need the ranking points and the prize money on offer.
It’s no secret how difficult life outside of the Top 100 and even Top 50 can be on tour, so surely an abundance of playing opportunities can help players that are challenged by the sports’ often cruel bottom line.
In Swiatek’s defense, there are more mandatory tournaments now for top players – naturally, the tour wants to showcase its top talent at more venues and during more weeks – and with the expansion of many Masters events from one week to two weeks, it truly is becoming more of a grind for a player like her.
We should listen to her words, and ask ourselves: do we want a generational talent burned out before she turns 25? Makes one think of Ash Barty, who no doubt had her reservations about the tennis grind before she retired on top of the sport at the age of 25.
Reviews on Swiatek’s comments are mixed. Gathering the most buzz were the comments of Yvgeny Kafelnikov on X.
“Is someone pushing you to play,” he wrote. “All you fricking do is complain!! I’ll tell you what you deserve! You deserve to get paid a lot less than you do now!! How about that??”
Sounds like Kafelnikov, a former World No.1 with two Grand Slam titles to his name, isn’t worrying much about the mental health of today’s players. That’s his perogative, but it doesn’t seem like he’s well-informed about the amount of mandatory tournaments there currently are. That said, Kafelnikov played over 80 matches on tour in eight consecutive seasons, from 1994 to 2001 – in 1995 alone he played 105 matches. This is the ultimate workhorse, and we know where he stands on the subject, but everybody is different in this regard.
The sport is more physical than ever, and the players are more invested in terms of obligations both on and off court. Playing 105 matches in a season isn’t what it used to be. Kafelnikov might have been impervious to burnout during his career, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to the words of Swiatek, who clearly has a point to make.