{"id":232037,"date":"2025-09-16T19:29:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232037\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T19:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:29:14","slug":"former-grand-slam-finalist-makes-comments-that-iga-swiatek-needs-to-take-notice-of-as-she-gets-ready-to-play-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232037\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Grand Slam finalist makes comments that Iga Swiatek needs to take notice of as she gets ready to play again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Iga Swiatek is set to make her return to tennis at the Korea Open this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/how-tennis-fans-are-now-expected-to-treat-amanda-anisimova-after-her-revenge-win-over-iga-swiatek\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swiatek lost to Amanda Anisimova<\/a> in the US Open quarterfinals, many expected her to rest up ahead of the two WTA 1000 tournaments in China.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Swiatek has travelled to Seoul for the Korea Open <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/wta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WTA<\/a> 500 event, where she will compete as the number-one seed.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"630\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2231847856-1024x630.jpg\" alt=\"Iga Swiatek looks on during her win over Suzan Lamens at the 2025 US Open\" class=\"wp-image-125888\" \/>Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Pole has been vocal about the hectic WTA schedule in recent times, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/iga-swiatek-says-what-is-crazy-about-tennis-and-needs-changing-to-make-the-sport-more-interesting-for-fans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swiatek claimed the season was \u2018super long\u2019<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>With those comments in mind, perhaps Swiatek would be wise to listen to what former Grand Slam finalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/anastasia-pavlyuchenkova\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova<\/a> has just said.<\/p>\n<p>Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova says WTA players need to be \u2018smarter\u2019 with their scheduling moves<\/p>\n<p>Appearing as a guest on \u2018Bolshe!\u2019, 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/french-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">French Open<\/a> finalist Pavlyuchenkova had this to say about players competing in Korea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the girls are complaining and groaning in the changing rooms, \u2018What a [long] season\u2019, and then I see everyone is already in Korea,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re already starting to play. I think\u2026 You literally just complained about the season, and now you\u2019ve already flown away. Why?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe smarter with your schedule, right? Yet everyone still plays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek isn\u2019t the only one playing in Seoul, as several other big names have joined her in the South Korean capital.<\/p>\n<p>Top eight seeds at the 2025 Korea Open<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links multi\">\n<li>1. Iga Swiatek<\/li>\n<li>2. Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/li>\n<li>3. Clara Tauson<\/li>\n<li>4. Daria Kasatkina<\/li>\n<li>5. Diana Shnaider<\/li>\n<li>6. Beatriz Haddad Maia<\/li>\n<li>7. Sofia Kenin<\/li>\n<li>8. Emma Raducanu<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pavlyuchenkova explained why the Asian swing of events is particularly difficult for players on tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s difficult for me, and it\u2019s not even a matter of age at all, because when I was 25 or 26, it was still hard for me. You fly in from America, adapt both in time and conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are different balls at each tournament. In Beijing, for example, I think it was Penn, in Tokyo, Srixon, and in Hong Kong, there were Wilson balls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such contrasting conditions can increase the risk of injury, which would be a disaster for a player like Swiatek, who continues to chase down <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/aryna-sabalenka\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> for the world number one ranking.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2232952557-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Iga Swiatek reacts during her quarterfinal defeat at the 2025 US Open\" class=\"wp-image-130121\" \/>Photo by Foto Olimpik\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>However, while it\u2019s easy to criticize Swiatek for playing in Korea, did she really have a choice?<\/p>\n<p>Did Iga Swiatek need to play the Korea Open?<\/p>\n<p>Players on the WTA Tour are required to compete in six WTA 500 tournaments every year (five if including the United Cup).<\/p>\n<p>If they fail to do so, their ranking will suffer as a result, thanks to the rules implemented by officials.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAny zero (0) ranking point results received from a WTA 500 Commitment Tournament must count on a player\u2019s ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>2025 WTA Rulebook<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Having participated in January\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/united-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Cup<\/a>, Swiatek needed to play five WTA 500 tournaments this year.<\/p>\n<p>To this point, the Pole has played just two events at the level.<\/p>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Tournament<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Month(s)<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Performance<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Opponent<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Score<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2025 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix<\/td>\n<td>April<\/td>\n<td>Lost in QF<\/td>\n<td>Jelena Ostapenko<\/td>\n<td>3-6, 6-3, 2-6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2025 Bad Homburg Open<\/td>\n<td>June<\/td>\n<td>Lost in F<\/td>\n<td>Jessica Pegula<\/td>\n<td>4-6, 5-7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2025 Korea Open<\/td>\n<td>September<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<td>\u2013<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>Iga Swiatek at WTA 500 tournaments in 2025<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, even with her participation in Korea, Swiatek will score zero points for two events counting towards her ranking.<\/p>\n<p>She isn\u2019t scheduled to compete at the two remaining 2025 WTA 500 events, the Ningbo Open and Pan Pacific Open, either.<\/p>\n<p>With players dropping points by not playing WTA 500 events, the pressure is on for them to compete, even when it doesn\u2019t make sense, physically and mentally, for them to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek may have preferred to practice for an extra week in the lead-up to the China Open WTA 1000 tournament, but thanks to the WTA rules, she hasn\u2019t been afforded that luxury.<\/p>\n<p>If the WTA Tour wants players to stay fit and compete at the biggest tournaments year-round, then perhaps certain rules need to be changed.<\/p>\n<p>Reducing the requirement from six WTA 500 events to four could alleviate most of these concerns, as the majority of the WTA top ten would be on course to pass that threshold.<\/p>\n<p>WTA 500 events played by top ten players in 2025<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links multi\">\n<li>1. Aryna Sabalenka (3\/6 \u2013 3\/4)<\/li>\n<li>2. Iga Swiatek (4\/6) \u2013 <strong>4\/4<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>3. Coco Gauff (3\/6 \u2013 3\/4)<\/li>\n<li>4. Amanda Anisimova (3\/6 \u2013 3\/4)<\/li>\n<li>5. Mirra Andreeva (4\/6 \u2013 <strong>4\/4<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>6. Madison Keys (4\/6 \u2013 <strong>4\/4<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>7. Jessica Pegula (<strong>7\/6<\/strong> \u2013 <strong>7\/4<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>8. Jasmine Paolini (3\/6 \u2013 3\/4)<\/li>\n<li>9. Qinwen Zheng (2\/6 \u2013 2\/4)<\/li>\n<li>10. Elena Rybakina (5\/6 \u2013 <strong>5\/4<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether the WTA decides to make a change to the rules in the future remains to be seen, but it will certainly be something to look out for.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek is set to begin her Korea Open campaign on Wednesday, September 17, against either Anastasia Zakharova or Sorana Cirstea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek is set to make her return to tennis at the Korea Open this week. After Swiatek&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":232038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[12660,22298,62,1464,67,132,68,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-232037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-anastasia-pavlyuchenkova","9":"tag-iga-swiatek","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115215634841497761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}