After Venting Out Frustration Amidst Crazy Scheduling, Iga Swiatek Reinstates Faith in WTA as Glimmer of Hope Shines Her Way

Iga Swiatek is someone who never minces words when it comes to sharing an honest opinion. Earlier this year, she expressed her serious concern over the WTA’s hectic calendar comprising frequent events. Back in August, she said, “Our calendar is crazy, probably the toughest one in sports…Our schedule is crazy, and it’s getting more crazy every year, which is scary.” The former World No.1 eventually gained a lot of support as well on this matter. Now, a positive update indicates that her issues with the WTA schedule may get addressed soon.

The Pole is currently preparing for the WTA Finals in Riyadh. During a recent press conference ahead of the event, she was asked whether the authorities governing the game actively listen to players’ issues, such as the topic of scheduling. In her response, Iga Swiatek said, “Well, I feel like when I first came to WTA, it was pretty tricky. Now I think that they are listening to us much more. I’ve seen some progress in terms of the communication.”

Remember, the player had blamed a lack of proper rest after getting eliminated at an early stage of the Wimbledon event in July. She then made it clear to not make such a mistake again, appearing in successive events affected her mental stability to a greater extent. As a result, she backed out of various ATP tournaments like the Toronto Open and the entire Asian swing comprising the Wuhan Open, China Open, and the Hong Kong Open. While reiterating her thoughts on the importance of mental health, she said,

I guess it’s all going to be about proper planning, making your own decisions kind of, no matter what’s going on with the rankings, mandatory tournaments sometimes. For sure for us as players, the priority should be our health in general.” On the other hand, the five-time Grand Slam winner did acknowledge that mandatory tournaments are part of the sport:
“It’s something that we kind of can’t take back because this is business, this is our contract, this is money,” she said. Hinting at a possible discussion with the authorities over the events, she hoped for “a good time to give some feedback and talk about it internally with WTA” at the end of this season. Furthermore, Swiatek also reflected on the new partnership with her first non-Polish trainer Wim Fissette.