Iga Świątek has come under fire of late, after giving her thoughts on tennis’ ever-increasing schedule.
It is a notion that has been echoed throughout the sport’s community, with players from the WTA and ATP more than happy to vocalise their frustrations on the matter.
However, for every star-studded name that steps up and makes their feelings known, there are plenty of people ready to shout them down despite all the tournaments that they are forced to play nowadays.
Iga Swiatek is just the latest to fall victim to these claims, and now one high-profile name has joined the pile-on by weighing in on the argument.
Iga Swiatek is not happy with the tennis schedule
Speaking after her spirited Cincinnati Open win over Mirra Andreeva, the world number one took the time after the match to give her thoughts on the matter.
Swiatek complained about the scheduling, with the following impassioned speech: ‘I think we have too many tournaments in the season. It’s not going to end well. It makes tennis less fun for us. I love playing in all these places but it’s pretty exhausting, most of the WTA players would tell you that.
‘We deserve to rest a little bit more.
Now, a former world number one in Yevgeny Kafelnikov has responded on X, writing: ‘Is someone pushing you to play ??? All you fricking do is complain!! I’ll tell you what you deserve! You deserve to get paid a lot less than you do now!! How about that??’
Who is Yevgeny Kafelnikov?
Having weighed into this scheduling debate, it’s worth noting exactly who Kafelnikov is, and why his opinion on the subject matters.
Firstly, as a former world number one, the Russian knows what it takes to reach the apex of the sport, having finished his career with two Grand Slam titles to his name as well as admirable showing at Wimbledon and the US Open too.
In claiming his maiden major title in Paris, he actually became the first Russian to ever win such an event, having overcome Pete Sampras in the semi-finals.
Not just a fine singles player though, he also enjoyed a rather prolific doubles career, winning another few Grand Slam titles as well as Olympic gold in 2000.
Finishing his career with 26 titles to his name, Kafelnikov deserves to be praised for his contribution to the sport.
However, his efforts to undermine Swiatek seem somewhat petty and unnecessary, especially when the tennis calendar is only expanding with each passing year.
The sport nowadays is vastly different to the era he played in, thus rendering his criticism far less important than the Polish superstar’s.
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