Iga worried by crowded calendar

Iga Swiatek has voiced her fears about the upcoming expansion of an already crowded tennis calendar, warning that burnout and injury among players will surely rise.

The WTA No. 1 who reached the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters in straight sets, said that player fitness will be at stake.

Already at the ATP/WTA stop in the flatland American Midwest, a handful of both men and women players have quit mid-match with various injuries and fitness problems.

Those handing in walkovers have included Holger Rune, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Dusan Lajovic on the men’s side while women who have been unable to finish comprise 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, Donna Vekic and Czech Marie Bouzkova.

Changes to the calendars for 2025 are set to include extensions of Masters events on both the ATP and WTA to nearly two weeks, with several sets of them staged back-to-back over the course of a single month (March and August).

“If they are longer, we have less time in between tournaments to recover,” Swiatek said.

“I think it’s going to be pretty extreme if all the 1000 tournaments are going to be like almost two weeks.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

The concerned player added: “This is a sign for WTA and ATP to kind of take it easy on us. On the other side there’s business that they need to take care of.

“I guess we are the ones that should be responsible and know when to take a break and not really push because it’s a race and it’s a pretty long one.

“This (summer hardcourt) swing is hard, especially with the delays and the weather that messed up the schedule (last week) in Montreal.

“It’s hard to recover from playing two matches a day.”