Iga Swiatek is not against representing her home country of Poland. Far from it. She did so at the Olympics this year. She has done so in the past at the Billie Jean King Cup. Her issue with playing in the BJK Cup, though, has been how close the start of the tournament was to the end of the WTA Finals.
Swiatek has been ranked at the top of the WTA for most of two years. She could safely assume she would make deep runs at the WTA’s year-end event. This meant she would have little time to not only rest between tournaments but working out the logisitcs of how to get from one event in time for another was difficult.
The Pole has not played in the BJK Cup since playing in qualifiers early in 2022. She did not play in qualifiers in 2023, even though there was an opening in her schedule. 2024 was different as Swiatek did help Poland qualify for the finals, but the expectation was that she would once again not participate.
Iga Swiatek chooses to play in the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup finals
Not so fast, however. The Pole has had a change of heart and decided to participate for Poland this year. This might partly be due to Swiatek being a bit more rested overall – she skipped a couple of tournaments in October – but there is also a few days break between the WTA Finals and the BJK Cup.
