A backhand to WTA: World No.1 Iga Swiatek serves up some harsh reality checks on not putting players first and current tour demands

Iga Swiatek has given a damning verdict on the WTA and believes they do not practice what they preach when it comes to handling the demands put on their players and using mental health initiatives while being hypocritical and making players stay on the road all season with more tournaments.

Going forward the WTA calendar extends with the number of WTA 1000 tournaments increasing to 10, with Madrid and Beijing extending to two weeks with larger draws. The Paris Olympic Games which her coach said she was preparing for in December already is also slotted between Wimbledon and US Open.

The 1000 tournaments being mandatory means that players Swiatek risk fines for not playing and being World No.1 and the lynchpin of the sport, Swiatek is expected to play these tournaments which she said the sport needs to do better at.

"The calendar is changing towards even more duties, even greater expenditure of energy that we will have to devote while participating in tournaments, because the tournaments are also extended," the 22-year-old told Eurosport.

But Swiatek also gave a damning verdict on the WTA and how they are hypocritical in all of this. She said that they promote well-being of players and mental health while in reality not putting it first so it acts almost as tokenism instead of an actual workable change.

"It is simply not conducive to what the WTA promotes in other aspects, i.e. mental health, life balance in any way, physical health. I would make decisions that would be more conducive to what they promote and support."