When it comes to tennis scheduling, Iga Swiatek has led the pack in criticising the hectic calendar. With the tours implementing the mandatory tournament rule, the top players are forced to participate in lower rung tournaments, else risk losing out on crucial ranking points. The Pole has been a strong critic of this rule, as the players are forced to play back-to-back tournaments. While Swiatek and other stars, such as Coco Gauff, have openly called out this rule, Chinese star Qinwen Zheng has gone against the grain defending this packed calendar.
Zheng is making a comeback at the ongoing China Open after undergoing elbow surgery following her first round loss at Wimbledon. Though she made a winning start to the tournament against Emiliana Arango in straight, Zheng was forced to retire midway through her second-round match against Linda Noskova. Watching her retire, an interviewer asked her to share her thoughts on the tennis scheduling.
However, Zheng went the opposite way as Swiatek and defended the tennis calendar, saying, “I mean, this is part of the games. As a professional player, I mean, this is what it is because we have to play that many tournaments because there is in the calendar. I think my situation’s different than them.”
“I coming from surgery, which is really rush decision for me to playing here. But also is the right decision for me because I want to see where my body is right now. Okay, now I know to compete third set, the amount of hitting the balls is too much for me,” she finished.
She later revealed in her presser that the China Open wasn’t even part of her original plan, as she wasn’t 100% ready to return yet. Though her team encouraged her to take it easy, Zheng made the decision to play at her home tournament. Coming back so soon was a risk as Zheng admitted that she would need to do an MRI to check on her elbow following the strain of two matches.
Qinwen Zheng went on to add, “But I don’t think for professional player the calendar is too much because the strongest players survive, and that’s the rules in my head.”
Meanwhile, as many as five players had to retire midway at the China Open. Apart from Qinwen Zheng, the likes of Camila Osorio, Jakub Mensik, Lorenzo Musetti, and Lois Boisson also pulled out of the tournament due to injuries. Amid this, Swiatek isn’t happy with the mandatory tournament rule implemented by the WTA. Moreover, she was even ready to break the rule if things didn’t change.
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Iga Swiatek makes a blunt revelation on the WTA mandatory tournament rule
Last year, the WTA announced a new rule, which mandated the players to play in all four Grand Slam tournaments apart from 10 WTA 1000 events and 6 WTA 500 tournaments. This new rule has taken a toll on the players’ physical and mental health, as they are compelled to play in back-to-back tournaments. As a result, Swiatek called out this rule and even admitted that she might break it to focus on her health.
She said, “For me, like, I don’t know yet how my career is going to look like in a couple years. Maybe I will have to choose some tournaments and skip them, even though they are mandatory. Yeah, like WTA with all these mandatory rules, they made this pretty crazy for us. I don’t think any top player will actually be able to achieve this, for example, playing the six 500 tournaments. It’s just impossible to squeeze it in the schedule.”
While mandating the big tournaments like the majors and WTA 1000 events is understandable, making players play the WTA 500 events compulsorily makes no sense. It will only add to the players’ getting injured more often than not, which will affect their participation in big events.