Before we continue, it should be said that Swiatek comes from a completely unique perspective at the top of the WTA food chain. She wins a lot of matches, and therefore plays many weeks in the tournament.
The 23-year-old has already played 62 games and is likely to play another 20 or 30. That’s the bottom line when you’re a consistent force at the top of the sport. Swiatek has always made it clear how much she values her time off, but with so many events to play – many of them mandatory – she’s often on tour, both mentally and physically.
“I don’t think it should be like that, because we deserve to rest a little more. Maybe people will hate me (for saying this),” she added.
The Pole’s comments could be seen as a little tone-deaf by players who, unlike Swiatek, need the ranking points and prize money on offer.
It’s no secret how tough life can be outside the Top 100 and even Top 50 on tour, so surely an abundance of opportunities to play can help players challenged by the often brutal end of the sport.
In Swiatek’s defense, there are more mandatory tournaments now for top players — naturally, the tour wants to showcase its best talent in more places and over more weeks — and with many Masters events expanding from one week to two week, it’s really getting weirder for a player like her.
We should listen to her words and ask ourselves: do we want a generational talent to burn out before she turns 25? It makes you think of Ash Barty, who admittedly had reservations about the sport of tennis before retiring from the sport at the age of 25.
Reviews of Swiatek’s comments are mixed. Yvgeny Kafelnikov’s comments on X gathered more noise.
“Is someone pushing you to play,” he wrote. “All you do is complain!! I will tell you what you deserve! You deserve to be paid much less than you are now!! What about this??
