King slams players in light of Alcaraz, Swiatek complaining about long season
“It’s interesting how they always complain there’s too much, but then they get a month off and they go play exhibitions”
Former world No 1 Billie Jean King has slammed players in light of complaints from the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek about the tennis schedule.
King spoke to BBC in Malaga, Spain, on the sidelines of her namesake women’s team competition — Billie Jean King Cup. The 12-time Grand Slam champion criticised the complainants, arguing they signed up for lucrative exhibitions whenever given the chance to take a breather.
“The calendar is really long, we know,” King said. “It’s interesting how they always complain there’s too much, they’ve been doing this forever by the way, but then they get a month off and they go play exhibitions. I’m like, ‘Really? You guys said you needed the rest.’ So don’t tell me the season is too long because I know, if there’s enough money, you go and play.”
Four-time Grand Slam champion and world No 3 Carlos Alcaraz, in a press conference during the 2024 Laver Cup in September, opined the calendar was loaded and the mandatory tournaments had been hard to cope with.
“There is a lot of tournaments during the year, mandatory tournament,” Alcaraz said. “And probably during the next few years gonna be even more tournaments, more mandatory tournaments. So, I mean, probably they are going to kill us in some way.”
Carlos Alcaraz on the difficulty of the ATP schedule:
“Probably they are going to kill us in some way.”
“Right now a lot of good players are going to miss a lot of tournaments because of injury.”
“Sometimes, you don’t want to go to a tournament. I’m not going to lie
