Iga Swiatek slams WTA for contradicting mental health promotion in scathing review
Iga Swiatek has hit out at the WTA for being hypocritical with their 2024 schedule. The world No 1 wasn’t happy with the number of tournaments being extended and the addition of another 1000-point event, claiming the WTA was going against their promotion of mental health and a work-life balance.
In a scathing review, Swiatek claimed the women’s tour should be making decisions in line with the values they tried to push.
Swiatek has often been outspoken on issues she doesn’t agree with in tennis, previously joining the debate over problems with tennis balls. The four-time Grand Slam champion has now been left frustrated with changes to the WTA calendar for 2024.
Both Doha and Dubai will now be WTA 1000 events while several big tournaments continue to increase their length to 12 days, including the China Open in Beijing. With the Olympics also taking place between Wimbledon and the North American hard-court swing, players will be forced to switch between all three surfaces in the space of a month.
And Swiatek believes that the tour is contradicting their principles of promoting mental health by implementing a schedule that is even more demanding on their athletes. “The calendar is changing towards even more duties, even greater expenditure of energy that we will have to devote while participating in tournaments, because the tournaments are also extended,” the 22-year-old told Eurosport.
