“After the Olympics, it hasn’t been easy,”- said Iga Swiatek during the Cincinnati Open. The Polish star has always raised concerns about the demanding schedule and she seems to have decided to carve her own schedule now. In another big blow to the Korea Open in its inaugural WTA 500 edition, Swiatek has withdrawn from the tournament. After Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, and Emma Navarro’s withdrawal, Swiatek’s absence is not good news for the tournament. This also marks the absence of the top 10 players from the tournament, as the World No.13, Daria Kasatkina would be the top seed at the WTA 500 tournament now.

Swaitek’s decision to withdraw from the Korea Open might not have come as a surprise to the fans. The Pole has time and again said that the grueling schedule makes the recovery of the players difficult. Less time for recovery might have cost Swiatek an Olympic Gold on her favored surface in Paris. Switching from clay to grass and back to clay is never easy and Swiatek struggled to do so after the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships.

While announcing her withdrawal from WTA Seoul, the World No. 1 said, “Since the US Open, my physical condition has not returned to normal. I had no choice. Please understand the situation where we have no choice but to change the schedule. Next year, I really want to visit Seoul and play a great game in front of Korean fans.”

Interestingly, after her defeat to Jessica Pegula at the US Open, Swiatek had stated her intentions to keep going without a break till the WTA Finals in November. “I don’t want to take a break. It’s tough. It could be a little bit easier, but I’m keeping up with the schedule. I’m only talking about mandatory tournaments and there are rules about mandatory tournaments. But I’m ready for playing till November, I guess, unless I’m going to get injured,” Swiatek said. But, while she said that, she still expressed her unhappiness about the schedule.

“We don’t have time to work on stuff or live peacefully”– says Iga Swiatek on long tennis season and mandatory tournaments

The absence of the top 10 tennis players from a WTA 500 tournament in Seoul is certainly a shocker for the organizers. But for the players, it might be a much-needed relief. The 2024 schedule is coming to an end. However, this also means that continuous tournaments with little rest have exhausted the players. And before they know it, the 2025 season would commence from 29th December 2024. After losing in the US Open quarter-final, Iga Swiatek shared her thoughts on the tight scheduling again.

She said, “The schedule is really tough. I know that, I mean, I spoke about it in Cincinnati, for example, and there are people saying that, ‘Oh, I don’t have to play so many tournaments, but…the fact is that we have so many mandatory tournaments that we literally need to show up and we don’t have time to work on stuff or live peacefully, because from one tournament we’re going straight to another. We don’t even have time until the end of the year, because literally the first tournament starts on 29th of December,”

Rest and recovery is also a part of the game. Iga Swiatek taking a step back in hopes to be back to the circuit before the WTA finals is not a bad decision at all. What do you think?