Swiatek slams “intense” tournament calendar

After rushing from a Saturday finals loss in Germany to a Sunday training day at Wimbledon, Iga Swiatek is feeling the pressure of a packed-out tennis calendar.

The five-time Grand Slam champion whose Wimbledon best was a quarter-final two years ago has called again for a rationalising of WTA duties, with players constantly moving from one event to the next on a nearly nonstop basis.

“For me the scheduling is pretty intense. I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments,” the Pole said a day after losing the Bad Homburg final to Jessica Pegula.

“The quality, for example, would be better or we would be more consistent because of that (reduction of calendar pressure).”

Swiatek, who is ranked eighth after not winning a title since Roland Garros last season, added that the tennis grind is getting more and more demanding.

“This is for sure challenging. But tennis is a difficult sport overall.. every week you start kind of from the beginning.

“Every week can tell you if you’re a great player or you sucked this week, you know.

“I think the scheduling is too intense. There’s no point for us to play, like, over 20 tournaments in a year.

“Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we’re going to get a zero (points) in the ranking.

But amid her cry for help is a saving grace: “You always have to have in the back of your mind that tennis is not your whole life. 

“You’ve got to give some perspective and also be proud of sometimes even when you don’t win, because only one person out of the whole tournament wins.”