Iga Swiatek criticized the relentless tennis calendar on Sunday, saying players should not be forced to compete in more than 20 tournaments a year to maintain their rankings.
Former World No. 1 (currently fourth place) said he was trapped in a system where he had to choose to represent his country and focus on himself after skipping Poland’s Billy Junking Cup qualifiers in April.
“Scheduling is very intense. It’s intense. It’s not worth playing more than 20 tournaments in a year,” Swiatek told reporters when asked about his biggest challenge for players in terms of mental health. “For example, you need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s to get zeros in the rankings, so you might have to sacrifice plays for your country.”
Swiatek previously mentioned the challenges presented by the tennis calendar, citing the impact on previous US mental health in the last year, citing the lack of preparation and the losses in February.
“I think these kinds of duties and rules about compulsory tournaments only put pressure on us,” she said Sunday. “…I think if we play less tournaments, people will still watch tennis. The quality will be better.”
The long tennis schedule was one of the foundations of a lawsuit filed by the Association of Professional Tennis Players against the Governing Body of Sports in March after the union described it as “unsustainable.”
Swiatek is Wimbledon’s eighth species this year, facing Polina Kudermetova in the first round on Tuesday.
The Clay Court specialist, with four open titles in France, has been eliminated in this year’s Roland Garros semi-finals. She quickly switched her focus to the grass.
She arrived on the last Saturday of her first grass court at the Bad Homburg Open. However, Swiatek said he was happy with the grass improvements.
“It’s not like a big change. It’s not like a 180-degree change. I’m not saying that everything is perfect, because it’s still a difficult surface. It’s still difficult,” Swiatek said. “Every year I feel it’s a little easier to get used to the surface, and I get more time to grow as a player.”
Reuters contributed to this report.