It's too much! Swiatek blasts calendar hell

Players feel the grind to protect rankings

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Iga Swiatek criticised the relentless tennis calendar on Sunday, with the former world No.1 saying that players should not be forced to compete in more than 20 tournaments a year to maintain their rankings.

Now ranked fourth in the world, Swiatek described being trapped in a system where she had to choose between representing her country and focusing on herself after she reluctantly skipped Poland’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in April.

The 11-month grind has been one of the cornerstones of the lawsuit filed by the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) against the sport's governing bodies in March after the union described it as ‘unsustainable!

“The scheduling is super intense, it's too intense. There's no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year,” Swiatek told reporters when asked about the biggest challenge to players in terms of mental health.

“Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking.