Jessica Pegula, the 2024 U.S. Open runner-up, will lead a new 13-person panel to suggest changes to the women's tennis calendar, rankings points rules and the requirements about competing in certain events, according to a letter sent Tuesday by WTA Tour chair Valerie Camillo to players and tournament officials.
For years, tennis players — women and men — have complained that the sport's season is too long and the offseason is too short and lamented other factors that contribute to injuries and burnout. Camillo said the Tour Architecture Council will make recommendations to the WTA Board; she hopes a revised setup can be approved for 2027.
“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, who became chair in November, wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Camillo's letter said the council “will focus first on areas where the WTA has direct authority to drive change, while also identifying longer-term opportunities that will require broader coordination across the sport” — by working, eventually, with the ATP men's tour and the four Grand Slam tournaments, she explained in a telephone interview.
“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 told 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.”
The No. 5-ranked Pegula, a 31-year-old American who will chair the council, “has a unique perspective as a top player (and is) widely respected for her thoughtful, collaborative approach,” Camillo said.
“It’s one of the toughest sports,” Pegula said 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.”
No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Swiatek were among more than a half-dozen withdrawals from this week’s WTA event in Dubai. During a pre-Australian Open tournament in January, Sabalenka said she planned to skip some tour stops “to protect my body.”
“The season," she said then, “is definitely insane.”
In addition to Pegula, active players on the council are Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, a two-time Australian Open champion and former No. 1; Maria Sakkari of Greece, a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist who has been ranked as high as No. 3; and Katie Volynets of the U.S., who is currently No. 96.
Camillo, WTA CEO Portia Archer and three other tour officials are on the panel, whose members also include Anja Vreg, an agent, ex-player and ex-umpire who is chair of the WTA Player Board; Bob Moran, whose Beemok Sports & Entertainment runs tournaments in Cincinnati and Charleston, South Carolina; Laura Ceccarelli, who represents the Asia-Pacific region on the WTA Tournament Council; and Alastair Garland, the managing director of Octagon Tennis and member of the WTA Board of Directors.
___
Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
