Over the past few years, Iga Swiatek has come down heavily on the hectic WTA calendar, which is causing great stress among the players. Take the example of the ongoing back-to-back WTA 1000 events in the Middle East. After the Qatar Open, players flew to Dubai to participate in the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships. Missing any of these tournaments has a major impact on the rankings and hence, players are compelled to play both these tournaments. As a result, Swiatek was unhappy with the scheduling and wanted the authorities to look into it. However, renowned journalist, Matt Futterman explained why Swiatek’s requests would go unheard.

At a time when the economic aspect of a tournament is considered to be of prime importance, the removal of tournaments can have a major impact on the finances. Additionally, with various sponsorship deals running for multiple years, the occurrence of the tournament becomes key. Futterman pointed out these challenges while addressing Swiatek’s problem.

During The Inside-In Tennis Podcast, he said, “I think it is very hard given the structure of the sport right now. There are too many people who are in charge and who are economically incentivized to maintain the status quo and the only way to shorten the season is to get rid of some tournaments and it’s a very hard to think to do because people are invested a lot in the tournaments. The other issue is to decrease the number of mandatory tournaments that go towards your ranking.”

Further, Swiatek has had some rough results of late. Last week, she suffered a crushing defeat against Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets. The former World Number 1 was blown away against a dominant Ostapenko in the semifinal 6-3, 6-1. Subsequently, Swiatek had a shock defeat against Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinal, losing in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. After her surprising loss, Swiatek pointed out the hectic schedule behind her grim results.

Iga Swiatek on her inconsistent form: ‘For sure it’s a calendar thing’

This isn’t the first time that Swiatek has come down heavily on the poor scheduling of the WTA Tour. From playing back-to-back matches on the same day in big tournaments like the WTA 1000 events to playing back-to-back events of this level, Swiatek has strongly expressed her desire to ease the schedule. Following her loss to Andreeva, Swiatek blamed the tennis calendar for her dip in form.

She revealed, “I’m not surprised. For sure it’s a calendar thing. Like, we’re not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week by week. But I feel like for sure the calendar is not helping. Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it’s not easy. Honestly, I’m not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn’t have time.”

After her Dubai exit, Swiatek will fly to the United States to participate in the Sunshine Double. Expect the scheduling to get more intense as she will be seen in action in Indian Wells and Miami. It’ll be interesting to see if she can rejuvenate in the Sunshine Double after some poor results off late.