OK this is crazy

 

When was last time she made Grand Slam final?

 

What does it have with anything???

 

The real issue is the WTA's financial situation—they are making playing 6 500's mandatory because it's the only way they can force lower-level events to upgrade their licenses to 500s and pay higher fees to the WTA. Without top players being forced to enter these events, no tournament director or sponsor is likely to voluntarily upgrade their 250 event to a 500.

I think it's good for top players like Aryna and Iga to push for dropping some of the mandatory requirements, but that would harm the tour's financial health and might undermine the overall goal of closing the prize money gap with the ATP, though I've never understood why that's a key objective for the WTA at this point in time.

Either way, I agree that Iga could take a page from Aryna and start taking some weeks off. She and Aryna (when at their best) are far ahead of everyone else, so even with some zero-pointers, they'll still be comfortably in the Top 2.

And Qinwen's injury wasn't caused by the schedule. As sad and unfortunate as that injury is, it was only a matter of time before her technique led to arm issues.

 

She didn't say anything about Iga. She answered a question about the schedule.

We really don't have to give every messy click bait article life here.

 

2ga got served

@ONS-GOAT

 

I’m assuming there are several defensive Iga fans in here, because it is a weird fallacy that Qinwen didn’t “survive” the calendar, when last I checked, she’s still entered in multiple events on this calendar. Iga said the same last year when she herself missed a chunk of 1000 events… so seems a bit contradictory.

Qinwen’s point seems to be that the best players need to be fit enough to be able to play ~20 events over a 52 week year. I agree.

 

Zheng should have been out for 6 months with her injury. Thats the last person i’d shame for retiring.

 

The new WTA rules about the players' Commitments are absurd. Top players are obliged to play 20 tournaments in a season (not counting the YEC). It's sheer nonsense to demand that a player who typically plays 4-6 matches per tourney, attend 20 of them. Even the most hardworking competitors can't meet this condition - Aryna & Iga have played 16 tournaments within the last 52 weeks each. And the mandatory minimum should be tailored to the strength of average athletes in the field, and not the busiest ones. The argument that they can skip some tournaments fails to be convincing when we realise that skipping mandatory events is actually a necessity and not just a possibility.

Let's observe that the rule of 20 mandatory tourneys, jointly with the principle of 18 tourneys included into the ranking count, implies that a leading player will inevitably have at least two results removed from the count. Even if she attends less than 18 events. It's another absurdity - to implement a system of rules that forces, as a necessary effect, the disqualification of some of the results obtained on court. The number of Commitment Tournaments per player should be reduced to 15-16, no more.

 

Queenwen says good things 👏

The Polisch woman needs to stop whining. If it's too much for her then she can skip tournaments but it's very tiresome when she insists on playing everything and complaining about it.

 

Iga will play everything to try to overtake Aryna, then she will complain about schedule.

 

Communist China and social darwinism, can you imagine better combo?

 

There is more social darwinism in China than in West, you would know it very much if you spent some time there.

 

Queenwen is sensible. Swiatek can afford to choose tournament she likes . She is richer, accomplised and much better then her then slamless compatriot such as Wozniacki,Kerber and Agatha that played 20+ tournaments.

 

QZ made some really thoughtless comments here, and honestly, her perspective is completely off. She even admitted she rushed back too soon, then contradicted herself by saying “only the strongest survive” with the schedule. The irony is that her inflated ego didn’t match reality; she couldn’t keep up and ended up quitting - yet again.

I just can’t stand the way she carries her arrogant, deluded self. I love being her hater and making her the tour villain in my head.

 

Writing that you are hater in the end was redundant. We could see you are just a hater already after a few words.

 

Personally I wish Iga was more selective with her tournaments and just take the administrative penalties where applicable, because I know she needs the downtime. But I'm not sure her psychological makeup allows for this kind of mindset.

That being said, Qinwen's mindset is not healthy either, but clearly the one she grew up with and embraces. Different strokes for everyone.

 

Everyone talking about players being able to miss tournaments without it being the end of the world is missing the forest for the trees. If tennis abstract is correct, Iga has played 72 matches in 2025 and Aryna has played 66. If your WTA top 2 are playing 75-80 matches (because they’re consistently making deep runs in all of these unnecessarily long 2 week masters) and still not fulfilling the requirements then the requirements are probably unrealistic. 4 500 events should be plenty.

 

@QINWEN-GOAT showing she is a professional

 

A typical TF General Messages Thread that is trying to stir up sh.t by: 1) choosing the title that misrepresents everything, 2) quoting somebody saying something that is at once self-contradictory and irrelevant.

 

Player who takes months off at time: "No of course the calendar isn't too full"

 

Everyone is so bothered by Queenwen and yet she remains unbothered.

She probably has come back a bit too early but it's not as if she's going to overcooked schedule wise considering she hasn't played since Wimbledon. Plus didn't Muchova come back this year from surgery and couldn't even hit her two handed backhand for a while? I don't think Zheng is any more impatient to come back than some others have been.

 

Carlos Alcaraz: "I will consider skipping some mandatory tournaments to the benefit of myself mentally. I agree with Iga and I think a lot of players are gonna do that."

 

Of course he won't skip the "Six Kings Slam" with its multi-million dollar appearance fee and $6 million dollar prize for the winner.

 

The top players are trying hard to create some super tour just for them with a few big tournaments. They're obsessed with money and are obviously garbage human beings.

 

For example, Carlos made much more money in appearance fees for showing up at Japan Open than in prize money. There are no appearance fees for a 1000.

 

Geez, some of you don’t understand that Iga isn’t just talking about herself.
“Oh noooo, why do I have to play so many tournaments, oh dear, they’ve gone mad. They’re picking on me, oh poor me!” - that’s not the point. The crux of her statement lies elsewhere.

What she means is that the WTA has created a SYSTEM that requires the top players, first of all, to be consistent, and secondly, to stay fully committed. Which means that top players are expected to play a lot and go deep in every tournament.

Let’s be honest: these demands contradict each other, because if you play a lot, the risk of injury or burnout increases. And if a player is injured, she simply cannot play. And if she can still play, sooner or later a dramatic drop in form will occur.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d say the WTA wants a high turnover at the top, so that good players quickly give way to the next in line. I personally think WTA just made a mistake, completely ignoring the physical limits of the players.

Those women who skip tournaments in order to return to the tour in peak form are simply punished for it - adding zeros to the tournament quota is just part of the penalty. In reality, it means losing points from the lowest-scoring events in that player’s ranking. There’s also a financial penalty - the higher your ranking, the more you pay. For repeat “offenses,” the penalty is doubled. These are not small amounts of money.

To sum up: WTA has built a system that demands huge sacrifice from the top players. If you don’t meet WTA’s requirements, you’re punished. If you do meet them, sooner or later you’ll also be punished - by your own body. That’s not how it should work.

The best players should be rewarded not only financially but also with the ability to rest, because they are human beings, not machines. The reputation of the entire tour rests on their shoulders, because inconsistency creates an impression of randomness and a low level of sport. Balance must be maintained.

 

it doesn't require, it very heavily encourages

 

All the stars have to do is skip it like Sabalenka or show up lose and leave
Tennis is a star driven sport. 98% of the tour are irrelevant and replaceable. Guys like Alcaraz make millions going to exhibitions and some tournaments that need a star
Swiatek made about $50M just in prize money at age 24, she doesnt need to play anywhere she doesnt want to
But rank and file like Rakhimova, Timofeeva, , need prizemoney and that is what matters, money in qualies and early rounds

 

Iga is right…the season is too long and there are too many rules

They need to get rid of 2 week mandatory 1000s except for IW and Miami. Finish the season by mid October to give them a proper off season and make sure the schedule makes geographical sense so there isn’t ridiculous air travel lengths.

 

Geez, some of you don’t understand that Iga isn’t just talking about herself.
“Oh noooo, why do I have to play so many tournaments, oh dear, they’ve gone mad. They’re picking on me, oh poor me!” - that’s not the point. The crux of her statement lies elsewhere.

What she means is that the WTA has created a SYSTEM that requires the top players, first of all, to be consistent, and secondly, to stay fully committed. Which means that top players are expected to play a lot and go deep in every tournament.

Let’s be honest: these demands contradict each other, because if you play a lot, the risk of injury or burnout increases. And if a player is injured, she simply cannot play. And if she can still play, sooner or later a dramatic drop in form will occur.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d say the WTA wants a high turnover at the top, so that good players quickly give way to the next in line. I personally think WTA just made a mistake, completely ignoring the physical limits of the players.

Those women who skip tournaments in order to return to the tour in peak form are simply punished for it - adding zeros to the tournament quota is just part of the penalty. In reality, it means losing points from the lowest-scoring events in that player’s ranking. There’s also a financial penalty - the higher your ranking, the more you pay. For repeat “offenses,” the penalty is doubled. These are not small amounts of money.

To sum up: WTA has built a system that demands huge sacrifice from the top players. If you don’t meet WTA’s requirements, you’re punished. If you do meet them, sooner or later you’ll also be punished - by your own body. That’s not how it should work.

The best players should be rewarded not only financially but also with the ability to rest, because they are human beings, not machines. The reputation of the entire tour rests on their shoulders, because inconsistency creates an impression of randomness and a low level of sport. Balance must be maintained.

No. The WTA just wants named players to show up and sell tickets. And the top players are looking to maximise profits and don’t give a fuck who comes after them. Their motives are even more self-serving than the WTA, and the side want to create a tour that basically creams off the top for themselves is despicable.

 

Jealousy is a killer in this industry.