Iga Swiatek dropped a pretty strong statement in her latest criticism of the WTA calendar as the Polish tennis star suggests she is willing to break the rules and miss some mandatory rules if that helps her stay physically and mentally healthy.
On Monday, Swiatek was in action at the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing, where she won the first set against Camila Osorio 6-0 before the Colombian was forced to retire due to an injury. Before Osorio retired, Lois Boisson did the same in her match against Lois Boisson.
Simultaneously, Beijing is hosting an ATP 500 tournament. In the men's event, Jakub Mensik retired midway through the first set against Alex de Minaur. That made it three retirements in Beijing way before the day's schedule was fully played out.
In her presser, Swiatek was asked to address multiple players retiring injured at the China Open. The Pole proceeded to declare the Asian swing as "the hardest" in the calendar before adding more.
Swiatek: I may be forced not to care about the rules and do the best for me
"For me, like, I don't know yet how my career is going to look like in a couple years. Maybe I will have to choose some tournaments and skip them, even though they are mandatory. Yeah, like WTA with all these mandatory rules, they made this pretty crazy for us. I don't think any top player will actually be able to achieve this, for example, playing the six 500 tournaments. It's just impossible to squeeze it in the schedule," the world No. 2 stated.
Swiatek then directly said that she may break some rules in the future.
"But yeah, I think we have to be smart about it, not really unfortunately care about the rules and just think what's healthy for us," the 24-year-old added.
Swiatek has appeared in 72 matches so far this year and owns a 59-13 record. She plays against Emma Navarro in the Beijing round-of-16.
