Former world number one Iga Swiatek is back in London hoping to put in a strong performance at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships.
The five-time Grand Slam champion, who recently beat Jasmine Paolini on her way to the Bad Homburg Open final, is considered to be at her weakest when on the grass surface.
Swiatek, who is yet to win Wimbledon, spoke to the media ahead of her first-round match against Polina Kudermetova.
During a Wimbledon press conference before her first-round match, the four-time French Open champion took aim at the WTA, bemoaning a decision that ‘doesn’t make sense.’
Iga Swiatek says the WTA Tour schedule ‘doesn’t make sense’
Speaking during a Wimbledon press conference on Sunday, Swiatek said: “It’s a difficult issue; everyone has their problems and sees things differently. For me, I believe the schedule is super intense, too intense.
“It doesn’t make sense for us to play over 20 tournaments a year. Sometimes we have to sacrifice a tournament in our country because we have to keep fighting for certain WTA 500 events to avoid a ranking drop to zero. These obligations and rules with specific tournaments put pressure on us.”
“I think people would still watch tennis even if we played fewer tournaments. This would help us be more consistent later on. It’s a challenge; tennis is a tough sport.
“Every week you start from scratch, but it’s important to remember that tennis is not your whole life; you need to put it in perspective and be proud of what you do, even when you don’t win.”
This is not the first time Swiatek has complained about the WTA Tour scheduling.
After losing at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February, Swiatek hit out, saying: “It’s a calendar thing. We’re not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week by week.”
“It’s not like some time ago that outside of, like, top-20 players, they were just getting destroyed more.
“Now anybody can win these tournaments. It has been like that for a couple of years.
“But I feel like the calendar is not helping. We need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. It’s not easy. I’m not surprised.”
Swiatek says she ‘wasn’t expecting’ to beat Jasmine Paolini at the Bad Homburg Open
Despite her history of struggles on grass, Swiatek has performed well during her opening matches of the grass-court season.
The 24-year-old made the final of the Bad Homburg Open after beating former Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini, winning 6-1 6-3.
Swiatek, who recently revealed her love for crosswords, ultimately lost 4-6 5-7 to Jessica Pegula in the final.
Swiatek expressed her surprise at beating Paolini during her Wimbledon press conference.
She said: “Yeah it was for sure something that I wasn’t expecting and it gave me a lot of confidence.
“Obviously it’s tennis so every day is different but I felt like I am playing great. I really pushed Jasmine the way I wanted to so it was great yeah.”
