Swiatek questions scheduling of WTA’s tournaments

World number 1 Iga Swiatek has criticized the decision to schedule only one WTA event this week, calling it an ‘unfortunate situation’.

The world’s best women’s players, including the Pole, are currently playing at the Qatar Total Open in Doha which only has a capacity of 32 players in its main draw.

It means that big names such as Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova had to come through qualifying in order to seal a place in the main draw.

And Swiatek, Qatar Open’s top seed, has called for more variety.

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“I don’t know what caused this situation, there were great players who had to go through the qualies and others who didn’t enter directly, it’s a rather unfortunate situation,” Swiatek told reporters in Doha.

“It would be nice if there was more variety, I’m in a position where I know I’ll be in every tournament, but not all of them have that privilege.

“I feel sorry for those most affected because they could also be playing this week, earning points and money, but they can’t.’

“It is enough to see how our first round has been to understand the toughness of the draw, each game is very difficult, but I would like there to be more variety, to have another tournament in a different city.”