Iga Swiatek of Poland celebrates after defeating Liudmila Samsanova of Russia in the women’s singles final match of the China Open tennis tournament at the Diamond Court in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)says she and other women’s tennis players are more united than in the past as they seek changes on the WTA Tour, including improvements to prioritize the athletes’ well-being.
“We are not happy with some things,” Swiatek, a three-time Grand Slam champion who was ranked No. 1 until September, said Wednesday afterSome players recently outlined various concerns in a letter to WTA CEO Steve Simon and during two meetings with tour leadership. Among the topics were a guaranteed income and coverage for maternity leave and injury absences, along with an objection to a planned change in rules governing mandatory tournament appearances.
“I feel like everything is just based on wanting to have more and more, but not really taking care of our well-being and health,” said Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland. “There are some things that the WTA could change for us without any impact on the tournaments and the things that they already agreed with the tournaments.”Djokovic starts Paris Masters with win over Etcheverry. Medvedev out of year-end No. headtopics.com
Simon wrote that “a great deal is being done and … there is a great deal of alignment in the areas you have raised and what is being worked on,” and promised to provide an update the week of Nov. 13.
“I really feel like we — me and the other players, like, Ons (Jabeur), Coco … and also some players that didn’t qualify for the finals — we’re really, really united, and we think the same way,” Swiatek said. “So most of us, even the young ones, the older ones, we all know that this is kind of not good that we’re going to have more mandatory tournaments. And so we want to really, really have an impact. headtopics.com