Former world No 3 and 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens has become the latest player to criticise the ATP and WTA amid controversy concerning scheduling in tennis.
The demands of the tennis calendar has been under the microscope in recent months, with Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz leading criticism.
The two major champions and former world No 1’s have received strong support from several other players and US star Stephens is among the latest to speak out on the issue.
Speaking on Caroline Garcia’s Tennis Insider Club podcast, the 31-year-old claimed mandatory rules were one of the “bad things” about the sport.
She said: “I never pushed myself to be like ‘I am going to stick it out for another three weeks just because I need my ranking.’ I feel like a lot of players just do that in general.
“You are just there because you don’t want to pay the fine, or you’re supposed to be, you entered the tournament and you don’t want to have any more withdrawals. You are like I’m present but mentally I’m not here.
“I feel like that is one of the bad things about both tours, ATP and WTA, is that you are forced to play even when you are probably not in the best mental capacity or physical shape, or you might be injured and you just arrive because that’s what you are supposed to do.”
WTA players such as Stephens are expected to play all four Grand Slam tournaments, alongside 10 WTA 1000 events, and a further six WTA 500 events – and the WTA Finals, should they qualify.
Failure to fulfil the required number of events means that players are stripped of ranking points from their worst-performing events, with Swiatek having recently lost her No 1 ranking due to such a sanction.
The Pole has played 15 events in 2024 – including the Olympics and BJK Cup qualifiers – though only played two WTA 500-level tournaments.
The five-time Slam winner has been arguably the most outspoken critic of tennis scheduling.
“Our calendar is crazy, probably the toughest one in sports,” said the Pole this August. “There are sports that are really tough because, physically, you might get beat up. But most sports have four months off, sometimes even six.
“Our schedule is crazy, and it’s getting more crazy every year, which is scary. You just have to train wisely.”
Meanwhile, speaking in September, ATP star Alcaraz claimed scheduling was going to “kill” players “in some way.”
He said: “I’m the kind of player who thinks there is a lot of tournaments during the year, mandatory tournaments and probably during the next few years gonna be even more tournaments, more mandatory tournaments. So, I mean, probably they are going to kill us in some way (smiling).
“Right now they are showing up a lot of injuries because of the ball, because of the calendar, because of a lot of things.
“So probably at some point a lot of good players are going to miss a lot of tournaments because of that because they have to think about their bodies, they have to take care of their love.”