The women’s professional circuit has bold plans this year to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the WTA’s existence. He will take other steps to ensure that not only at Grand Slams, but also at other tournaments, female players earn comparable prize money to men.

Tennis players have been calling for this for a long time, but they don’t know how tour management wants to achieve it. In subsequent years, the number of mandatory tournaments will increase. There will be 10 of them from the 1000 category, which is the biggest after the Grand Slam, and some of them will be spread over two weeks as are the big four.

“And that’s wrong. This will affect our physical and mental health. With so many events held over two weeks, there will be less free time, for our loved ones, for regeneration,” said former world number one Iga Šwiateková.

Not only that. There should also be more events from the WTA 500 category, which is also important for women players because of ranking points, 17 of which will appear on the calendar. Organizers hope this will attract more top female players and thus more media and sponsor attention.

“It was just trying to play more and earn more money, but the WTA doesn’t care about our health at all. I have been playing professionally for four years, of which I have played two very intense seasons with all the players. tournament and I already feel that if it continues like this I won’t last long on the circuit either,” said the only twenty-two year old Polish woman.

At the same time, she added that she felt great determination among the players to do something about the situation and explained to the WTA that it was necessary to reconsider the plan.

“For the first time in four years on the circuit, I feel that we are all players together. Whether it is at the top or lower ranking. We are all working together and we want change. “We think there is room for changes in the WTA calendar, which would bring some kind of compromise and improve our conditions,” said Šwiateková.

Simon responded to the criticism with a letter stating that the WTA shares women’s players’ views on several issues and has begun making improvements. Among other things, several working groups were formed consisting of members of the association management as well as representatives of the tournament and players’ council.

Their task, for example, is to check the composition of the calendar and the quality of service for female tennis players in tournaments. They will also handle increased marketing and promotion on social networks, as well as fluctuating ball quality in tournaments. The conclusion should be presented by mid-November.

Although the current world number two player admits that he is tired from this season, this is not at all visible in the ongoing Tournament of Champions. After two matches, she has two clear wins on her account and she even gave Markéta Vondroušová and American Cori Gauffová a canary.

Editing of the match between Markéta Vondroušová and Iga Šwiateková: