Week after week, tennis stars play for prize money and world ranking points. The world number one wants to put more focus on the health of the players
With tennis matches increasingly being played later in the evening or even at night, and several matches being scheduled in one day, Polish world number one Iga Swiatek has called for more consideration for the players. “Maybe for once we should also pay a little bit more attention to the health of the players because after all we have to play week after week,” Swiatek said ahead of her entry into the WTA tournament in Cincinnati.
“Would be nice if the attention is on the players “
The 22-year-old was reacting to the rain-related postponement of matches at last week’s WTA tournament in Montreal. In Canada, rain had first forced former Wimbedon winner Elena Rybakina to finish her Friday quarter-final against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina by three o’clock on Saturday night. Afterwards, the latter had complained that she felt “destroyed” by the WTA’s schedule and called the federation “weak. “
The Kazakh, still overtired, lost her semi-final, which literally fell through on Saturday, to Russia’s Ludmila Samsonova on Sunday, who in turn lost to Jessica Pegula of the United States 1-6, 0-6 in just 49 minutes in the final just hours later. “The tour is already so exhausting because of all the travelling, so it would be nice if the attention is focused on the players,” Swiatek continued.
The four-time Grand Slam winner has herself been affected several times recently by the rigorous implementation of the match schedules by the organisers. “During the clay court season, I had to play four matches in Rome and Madrid that were not finished until shortly before or even after midnight,” Swiatek reported.
The Warsaw-born Swiatek expects more clarification from the WTA about the reasons for scheduling matches so late: “I understand the TV broadcasts, but I have already asked the WTA for evaluations of how many people watch tennis on TV in the evening after 10 pm. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an answer. “
