Jessica Pegula, the runner-up in the 2024 US Open, is leading a 13-person panel aiming to improve the women’s tennis calendar moving forward via changes such as rankings points rules and the requirements about competing in certain events, per a letter sent Tuesday by WTA Tour chair Valerie Camillo to players and tournament officials.
Tennis players, on the men’s and women’s side, have complained for years about the sport’s calendar, in particular how long the season endures, as well as other factors that players believe are contributing to increased injury and burnout.
“There has been a clear sentiment across the Tour that the current calendar does not feel sustainable for players given the physical, professional, and personal pressures of competing at the highest level,” Camillo wrote in the letter, per the Associated Press.
“We are very open to looking broadly at a host of potential solutions to this. … The idea is: We go in there with a very open mind and open dialogue,” Camillo said the AP.
“We’re not going to solve the entire world [immediately]. … The reason we don’t want to wait for, ‘Hey, let’s do this as a collective system,’ [is] we want to be timely, we want to be focused on making an immediate impact.”
Camilo believes that Pegula, who sits at the world No. 5 ranking, “has a unique perspective as a top player [and is] widely respected for her thoughtful, collaborative approach.”
“It’s one of the toughest sports,” Pegula said only last year, “just when you combine, not just the physicality of it, but the schedule, the loneliness, the mental side, how tough it is to go out there and compete, week in and week out, by yourself.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.