Iga Swiatek and a host of other WTA stars are currently in Seoul for the 2025 Korea Open. However, their participation at the WTA 500 event has been questioned by their Russian rival, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 12-time career singles titlist and former Major finalist. According to Pavlyuchenkova, the players chose to compete in the tournament despite previously voicing complaints about the tennis schedule.
Speaking on a recently-released episode of the Bolshe podcast, 2021 French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova wondered, without specifically mentioning any names, why Iga Swiatek and the others have opted to play in Seoul even though they have ‘complained and groaned’ about the lengthy duration of the tennis calendar.
“All the girls are complaining and groaning in the changing rooms, ‘What a [long] season’, and then I see everyone is already in Korea. They’re already starting to play. I think… You literally just complained about the season, and now you’ve already flown away. Why?,” Pavlyuchenkova said. (translated from Russian)
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The former World No. 11, currently ranked 52, went on to talk about the need for players to be more prudent about the tournaments they compete in, adding:
"Be smarter with your schedule, right? Yet everyone still plays." (translated from Russian)
Swiatek is the top seed at the Korea Open, followed by Ekaterina Alexandrova, Clara Tauson, Daria Kasatkina, Diana Shnaider, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Sofia Kenin, and Emma Raducanu.
Iga Swiatek bemoaned not having time to celebrate title triumph at Wimbledon 2025 because of tennis calendar
Iga Swiatek ruthlessly dispatched Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 to win her sixth Slam title and her first at the Wimbledon Championships earlier this year. In the aftermath of the result, the Pole had to quickly shift her focus towards her campaign at the National Bank Open in Canada. Speaking about this swift turnaround during an appearance on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Swiatek said:
"I try to remind myself if I feel like I need to yeah celebrate a bit more and be proud of what I'm doing. But you don't have much time to do that because as I said like next week you have another challenge in tennis. It's not like you have only world championships, Olympics and if you win that you can kind of be happy for a month or two. You just have to get back into it straight away."
Since her emphatic Wimbledon triumph, Iga Swiatek played in Canada, followed by the Cincinnati Open and the US Open. She won the title in Cincinnati, but fell at the quarterfinal stage at Flushing Meadows.
As the top seed at the Korea Open, the Pole has received a first-round bye and is set to begin her campaign in the second round, against either Anastasia Zakharova or Sorana Cirstea.
