"Our bodies need vacations" - Iga Swiatek sends strongly-worded plea to WTA to fix hectic schedule & protect women's tennis players

Iga Swiatek was recently asked to give her thoughts on the placement of the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals in the WTA Tour schedule. The World No. 2 insisted that the current format, which has seen the qualifying round and the knockout round being slotted in April and September, respectively, has given the top singles players slightly more room for rest.

The dates for this year's BJK Cup were moved around for better tour logistics, after the 2024 finals in Malaga, which saw Italy win their first title at the team event since 2013, were played in November. The knockout round at the national tournament was instead scheduled for September this year in Shenzhen, consequently giving the players better connectivity with the final part of the WTA Tour season - the Asian tennis swing.

Although Iga Swiatek couldn't play for Poland at the BJK Cup qualifiers this year due to scheduling issues despite her 2024 heroics, she spoke positively about the tournament no longer clashing with the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in her recent comments to the media. The 24-year-old emphasized the importance of vacations as well, considering how WTA's recent scheduling has been in direct odds with that.

"I haven't talked about the tournament with my teammates because I didn't play in it. As for the place on the calendar, it's a good decision, because for a player who doesn't play in the WTA Finals, it's difficult to feel part of the season in November, where they used to be, and not be able to go on vacation," Iga Swiatek said (via Punto de Break). "Maybe I shouldn't talk about vacations, but let's be honest, there's no time for them during the season."

"And our bodies need them too. Some players wait, others go on vacation, train for a couple of days, and then play in the tournament, which isn't ideal."

On a similar tangent, the Pole also critiqued the WTA Tour requiring singles players to play at least six WTA 500 tournaments. She fell afoul of this very rule last year, which resulted in her being docked 120 ranking points - something that ended up being very costly as she surrendered the year-end World No. 1 position to Aryna Sabalenka.

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Iga Swiatek beckons WTA to remove one mandatory 500-event, gives BJK Cup example

Iga Swiatek hits a forehand at Korea Open 2025 | Image Source: Getty

Iga Swiatek took the above opportunity provided by the Billie Jean King Cup scheduling discourse to implore WTA to update their mandatory 500-level events rule. The six-time Major winner believes that BJK Cup Finals should, for all intents and purposes, be treated as a mandatory event.

"Yes, the change is certainly for the better, but there's one important thing: the ITF and WTA should sit down together and allow players to avoid having to compete in six mandatory 500s, or five, because if you play in the BJK Cup Finals, you have one less week to do so," Swiatek said. "If the WTA could treat it like another tournament, perhaps remove one of the mandatory 500s, I think that would be good."

Swiatek, meanwhile, has already qualified for the year-end championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by virtue of her title runs at Wimbledon, the Cincinnati Open, and the recently-concluded Korea Open.