Now anybody can win these tournaments’ – Iga Swiatek scathing criticism of WTA scheduling

Iga Swiatek has hit out at WTA’s event scheduling and stated: ‘Now anybody can win these tournaments’ after her quarterfinal loss to Mirra Andreeva in Dubai.

The 6-3, 6-3 defeat marked yet another heavy loss for the world No 1, coming just one week after her 6-3, 6-1 loss to Jelena Ostapenko at the Qatar Open.

With the Pole’s defeat, all of the top five seeds have now crashed out of the tournament.

However, after her defeat, Swiatek made her feelings about the hectic scheduling of events by the WTA clear.

“For sure it’s a calendar thing,” the world No 2 said.

“Like, we’re not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week by week. Also, it’s not like some time ago that outside of, like, top-20 players, they were just getting destroyed more.

“Now anybody can win these tournaments. It is like that since couple of years. But I feel like for sure the calendar is not helping.

“Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it’s not easy. I’m not surprised.”

The five-time Grand Slam champion, who has not won a title since Roland Garros in 2024, stated: “I had the same kind of mindset as like every year, I would say. But the preparation for sure was different.”

“Before I lost in Australia early, so I had time to do some stuff. This year I didn’t.

Honestly, I’m not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn’t have time
I believe we need to change something in the preparation. Every time I don’t feel well playing here. Even health-wise I’m struggling. Australia always takes a lot of energy out of me.”

Iga Swiatek is next due to participate at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, March 2 – March 16.

After the victory, Andreeva – who is the youngest woman to beat Swiatek, and also the youngest woman to reach the semi-finals in the Dubai tournament’s history – stated: “Honestly, I was really nervous before the match.

We played in Cincinnati last year and it was pretty intense, so I just told myself that I played great [at their last meeting] and I just need to continue playing aggressive and active and go for my shots.

“It was also not easy with all the fans, but I think we were even. I had a lot of people supporting, so thank you guys for supporting me today. It means a lot.

“She told me everything I knew already, she just told me to keep going because I played good. And she just told me to go for my shots, that I don’t have to change anything, I just have to keep playing the same

But for me, honestly, it’s harder to keep playing the same than changing something, so I had a clear goal for this match and I think I was sticking with it until the end.”

The Russian will next face Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 in Dubai.