Aryna Sabalenka blasts WTA over ‘insane’ tennis season

Dubai: Women’s world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka yesterday accused tennis authorities of failing to put player welfare first over what she called an “insane” tennis season.

The number of events in the tennis calendar has been a frequent complaint in recent months among the sport’s biggest names.

Men’s world number one Carlos Alcaraz is another to have voiced concern about the amount of tennis he plays, although he has also signed up to feature in lucrative exhibition matches.

He faces great rival Jannik Sinner in one such event on Saturday in South Korea, barely a week before the Australian Open.

Sabalenka too played in the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ exhibition match against Nick Kyrgios during the off-season.

Speaking at the year-opening Brisbane International, the Belarusian said she was prepared to be fined for missing mandatory tournaments in the months ahead.

“The season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us as you see so many players getting injured and also the balls are quite heavy, so it’s a lot of struggle for all of us,” four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka said.

“The rules are quite tricky with mandatory events, but I’m still doing that, I’m skipping a couple of events in order to protect my body because I struggled a lot last season.”

She added: “So this season we will try to manage it a little bit better, even though they are going to fine me by the end of the season.

“I think they just follow their interests,” she said. “But they’re not focusing on protecting all of us.”

And while there was no immediate response from the WTA, the ATP yesterday announced a slight compromise with disgruntled players by reducing the number of obligatory tournaments they must play each year in an ever more packed schedule.

The ATP said it was reducing the number of ATP 500 events players must take part in each year from five to four, and also cutting back the maximum number of events used to calculate ranking points, from 19 to 18.

The ATP said this was done “to create more scheduling flexibility”.

Another compromise announced by the ATP to alleviate the pressure on players is that anyone who pulls out of an ongoing tournament due to the birth or adoption of a child will now keep the ranking points they have gained up until then, meaning they would not have to play in an extra tournament to gain ranking points for the ATP Finals.

The ATP also announced an expansion of the use of video review technology to ATP 500 events in 2026 and ATP 250 events in 2027.

“A new Heat Rule is being implemented across ATP events, with clear protocols to suspend or adjust play in extreme conditions,” the ATP said in its statement.

With inputs from agencies