World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has decided against playing in a prestigious tennis tournament.
For the third year in a row, Iga Swiatek will not feature at the Billie Jean King Cup finals in Spain in November, having turned down the chance to represent Poland.
Instead, Polish captain Dawid Celt has Magdalena Frech, Magda Linette, Maja Chwalinska and Katarzyna Kawa to call upon, with plenty of big names in action despite Swiatek’s decision not to be involved.
Swiatek sent Poland to the finals in April, defeating 18-year-old Swiss star Celine Naef 6-4, 6-3. She won six straight games to ensure that the 2022 champions’ 4-0 win was enough to book their place in Seville for the tournament dubbed the ‘World Cup of tennis’.
Emma Navarro and Coco Gauff have also opted against representing Team USA, with Swiatek likely skipping the event as it falls too close to the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.
Iga Swiatek has pulled out of one of the high points of the tennis calendar. (Image: Getty.)
For the third year in a row, Iga Swiatek will not feature at the Billie Jean King Cup finals in Spain in November, having turned down the chance to represent Poland.
Instead, Polish captain Dawid Celt has Magdalena Frech, Magda Linette, Maja Chwalinska and Katarzyna Kawa to call upon, with plenty of big names in action despite Swiatek’s decision not to be involved.
Swiatek sent Poland to the finals in April, defeating 18-year-old Swiss star Celine Naef 6-4, 6-3. She won six straight games to ensure that the 2022 champions’ 4-0 win was enough to book their place in Seville for the tournament dubbed the ‘World Cup of tennis’.
Should Swiatek, a favourite for the season-ending competition, make it to the final in Riyadh on November 9, she would have a very short time to recover before competing for her country on November 13 against Spain.
A difficult few tournaments for Swiatek have seen her miss out on Olympic gold and crash out of the US Open at the quarter-final stage, amid complaints from the 23-year-old that the tennis schedule is far too demanding.
Having played over 50 singles matches this year, Swiatek told Sky Sports: “What can I say? I’ve been kind of an advocate in saying that we shouldn’t, I don’t know… be pushing and pushing for us to play more.
Obviously it is not our decision. But for sure I think we have too many tournaments in the season. It’s not going to end well. It makes tennis less fun for us. Obviously, I love playing in all these places, but it’s pretty exhausting. Most of the players will tell you that. Especially when you are playing at the higher level and going to the end of tournaments.
I don’t think it should be like that because we deserve to rest a little bit more. Maybe people are going to hate me for saying that. I’m asking for rest. That doesn’t make sense, but the best players learn how to balance it out wherever the ATP or WTA are pushing. We will see in the future how it works out.”
Swiatek has been forced to take matters into her own hands once again and pull out of a tournament that she likely wanted to participate in. But due to the tight scheduling between the Billie Jean King Cup finals and the WTA Finals, the Pole was forced to decide between the two events, highlighting a need for the calendar to be re-assessed once again.