'These kind of rules just put pressure on us': Iga Swiatek pushes for reduced WTA schedule again

Iga Swiatek once again addressed the hectic schedule of the WTA Tour. The 5-time Grand Slam champion again pointed out the limited rest time players have throughout the 11-month season and the large number of mandatory tournaments they must fulfill.

The Pole had previously vocalized concerns about the few breaks available on the Tour, and upon her arrival at Wimbledon, it was one of the topics she touched upon. Swiatek was, in fact, still in competition just one day ago, after reaching the final of the Bad Homburg Open.

Swiatek reached her first grass-court final, where she fell to Jessica Pegula on Saturday afternoon. After a painful defeat – which keeps Swiatek without a title since Roland Garros 2024 – the Pole had to travel quickly to Wimbledon, where she is scheduled to debut this Tuesday against Polina Kudermetova.

"I think the scheduling is super intense. It's too intense. There's no point for us to play, like, over 20 tournaments in a year," Swiatek said at her pre-Wimbledon press conference on Sunday. "Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking. I think these kind of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us.

"For me the scheduling is pretty intense. I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments, but the quality, for example, would be better or we would be more consistent because of that,”

Despite her concerns, the Pole wanted to draw positive conclusions from her time in Bad Homburg, which was her only preparatory grass-court tournament for Wimbledon. "Probably so far it's the best one that I've had," she added. "I had really great time in Bad Homburg and enjoyed it. Also having more time to practice before on grass really helped. I feel that I have a little bit more skills."