Iga Swiatek may be one of the harshest critics of the WTA calendar out there but that doesn’t mean that she will be taking an extended break from tennis after a disappointing end to the final Grand Slam of the year.
The Pole, who entered the US Open seeded at No. 1 and among the top favorites for the title, saw her campaign come to an end in the quarterfinal following a surprise 2-6 4-6 loss to Jessica Pegula.
Throughout the match, the five-time Major champion wasn’t looking like her usual self and the stat that perfectly sums up her performance was the 23-year-old having just 12 winners and a shocking 41 unforced errors.
Since Swiatek dropped some pretty heavy criticism on the schedule twice during August, the reporters were interested in knowing if she was contemplating to step away from the game for some time or relax her calendar in the remainder of the year.
“I don’t want to take a break. It’s tough. It could be a little bit easier, but I’m keeping up with the schedule. I’m only talking about mandatory tournaments and there are rules about mandatory tournaments. But I’m ready for playing till November, I guess, unless I’m going to get injured,” the world No. 1 said.
Swiatek: People are going to hate me, but…
As mentioned above, the Polish tennis superstar made her feelings on the schedule cristal clear a couple of times during this past month. After collecting a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics – which were held on the clay courts of Roland Garros – the 23-year-old came to Cincinnati two weeks later for their WTA 1000 tournament.
There, the five-time Major winner made it past her opening three matches before getting bounced by Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal. Before exiting Cincinnati, Swiatek came back from a set down to avoid an upset and beat Mirra Andreeva 4-6 6-3 7-5. After the Andreeva match, the Pole absolutely unloaded on the calendar.
“So what can I say I’ve been kind of an advocate, saying that well, we shouldn’t be pushing and pushing for us to play more. Obviously, it’s not our decision, but for sure, I think we have too many tournaments in the season. It’s not gonna end well as it’s just it makes tennis less fun for us. Let’s just say, I mean, obviously, I love playing all these places but it’s pretty exhausting,” Swiatek told Sky Sports in Cincinnati.
I think most of the players could tell you that. Especially when you’re playing at the high level and, you know, going to high-ranking tournaments. I don’t think it should be like that. We deserve to rest a little bit more obviously maybe. People are going to hate me for that because it sounded weird that I’m asking for rest. It doesn’t make sense, but the truth is that you have got to keep up with the Tour.”
Swiatek didn’t back down a bit: This is crazy…
While the four-time French Open champion heavily criticizing the length of the calendar and the demands of it wasn’t anything new, her comments still made all the headlines. And after arriving at the US Open, she was asked about the same matter again. And again, she made it perfectly clear what her real feelings were.
“I think players are aware that this is crazy what’s going on. The schedule is really tough. I know that, I mean, I spoke about it in Cincinnati, for example, and there are people saying that, ‘Oh, I don’t have to play so many tournaments, but…'” Swiatek explained at the start of the US Open.
The fact is that we have so many mandatory tournaments that we literally need to show up and we don’t have time to work on stuff or live peacefully, because from one tournament we’re going straight to another. We don’t even have time until the end of the year, because literally the first tournament starts on 29th of December. So yeah, the season is, for sure, too long.”
So far in 2024, the 23-year-old Pole has appeared in a total of 15 events and has played in nearly 70 matches. In the first part of the year, the world No. 1 collected five titles, including a three-peat at Roland Garros. But since then, she hasn’t played any finals or won any titles.
In late September and early October, back-to-back WTA 1000 tournaments in Beijing and Wuhan will be taking place. And that will probably be when we will see Swiatek back in action.
Also, Swiatek has already secured a ticket for the WTA Finals so she will likely play at least three more tournaments in the rest of 2024.
