“Our schedule is crazy, and it’s getting more crazy every year, which is scary. You just have to train wisely” – Iga Swiatek said this before the start of the Cincinnati Masters. Now, she pulled out her name from the Korean Open due to fatigue. Even Jessica Pegula and some other WTA stars were forced to take a similar route to manage their workload in the middle of a jam-packed schedule. We’ve heard several tennis bigwigs taking a jibe at WTA for scheduling woes and now, Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs joins that list.
During a recent episode of ‘The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast’, Stubbs said, “Scheduling is killing everybody. You know, I do remember having to go to Europe after the US Open, Asia is like another it’s just, it’s just an added right? It’s more hours. You know, everybody who goes back to Europe after the US Open. Europeans like to play in Europe. Now, they got to go back home, and then back to Asia, and then Americans are going to go over to Asia. It’s like, it’s a, I mean, the only people benefiting people that live in Asia, great.” According to her, all the Japanese and Chinese tennis benefit the most from this, while for the rest of the players, these long flights can be pretty much hectic.
The 53-year-old Aussie superstar further added, “It’s a bear to have to go to Asia and then you got to go to Guadalajara. Like, what after the US opened? F-ck, what are we doing? WTA, like, get it together.” Iga Swiatek has been quite vocal about this issue during the US Open as well. She was seen complaining that players are not being heard when they express concerns about potential harm to their mental and physical health due to longer tournaments and participation in more events.
Later on, during an interview with Sky Sports, we heard Swiatek say, “I’m kind of an advocate, saying that we shouldn’t be pushing to play more. It’s not our decision but I think we have too many tournaments during the season. It makes tennis less fun for us. I love playing in all of these places, but it becomes exhausting.” Not only Rennae Stubbs and Iga Swiatek, but even players like Elina Svitolina and Donna Vekic raised their voices on this issue. Svitolina said that players always want to win tournaments but they also have to take care of their mental and physical health. So tight schedules are always a bit hectic for all of them.
The Croatian star, Vekic stated. “The schedule is absolutely brutal. When you compare it to other sports that have an actual offseason — we have, what, a month, a month and a half? You don’t even have time to relax, get rest before you have to start training again,” She called it pretty much “unhealthy” for all the players. In February 2024, Daria Kastakina went a step further and questioned the WTA and tournament organizers on whether their motive was to “make players die” or get them “injured often” with these type of schedules. Is this issue only related to WTA? No, even several ATP stars and former players have spoken about this issue multiple times in recent months.
“I just felt out of gas” – Not only Iga Swiatek but also Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and several others have the same complaint
Novak Djokovic faced a defeat in the third round of the US Open at the hands of Australia, Alexei Popyrin. While speaking about his disappointing performance in NY, the Serb said, “I spent a lot of energy winning the gold, and I did arrive to New York just not feeling fresh mentally and physically. But because it’s the US Open, gave it a shot and I tried my best. I didn’t have any physical issues. I just felt out of gas.” Even Carlos Alcaraz faced an early exit from the US Open!
He was defeated by the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round. The Spaniard was also seen complaining about the same thing after his shocking exit from the US Open. “I came here with not as much energy as I needed, but I don’t want to put that as an excuse. I’m a player who needs more days and more breaks coming into the good tournaments,” said Alcaraz. After hearing all of these things, American tennis legend, Andy Roddick also showed his support to the players on this issue.
Even, Roddick felt the “tight” scheduling has played a key role in these major upsets in the US Open this year. He stated that the “Olympic hangover was real“. Several other tennis stars are facing these issues in this part of the season but Iga Swiatek, Novak Djokovic, and Carlos Alcaraz’s failure at the US Open has become the major talk of the town. Share your thoughts on this ongoing problem in the tennis world.
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