COLUMN: This is nuts, the WTA season is starting again already

How are we only two weeks away from the start of the WTA season? As a fan, I still haven’t processed last season. Not emotionally. Not physically. Not in that quiet way where you replay matches in your head and slowly come to terms with what you watched. I am nowhere near ready for another year of tennis, and that’s from the comfort of my couch.

So imagine being one of the players. There is simply no way they are rested, fully recovered, and adequately trained for another season. Not across the tour. Not consistently. Not honestly. It is impossible.

We talk a lot about “off-season” in tennis, but for many WTA players it barely exists. A few weeks of decompression. Some rehab. A rushed training block. Then a long flight to Australia and straight into meaningful matches that count for rankings, income, and careers.

Now place that next to another sport for perspective. The NFL is nearing the end of its regular season. Those players play 17 games. Once a week. Brutal collisions, yes, but also built-in recovery time. Imagine if the NFL told its players they had to start another full season less than two months after the Super Bowl. No one would accept that. Fans, media, players, and doctors would all say the same thing. The body cannot do this.

Yet this is effectively what we ask of elite tennis players. And every January, we act surprised. Surprised when players pull out injured during the Australian swing. Surprised when bodies break down in the heat. Surprised when fatigue shows up as sloppy movement, shortened careers, or mental burnout before the season even finds its rhythm.

The human body was not built for this. The mind of a high-level professional athlete was not built for this either. Imagine arriving in Australia knowing that if things go well, really well, you are committing to a season that runs almost nonstop until November. Different continents. Different surfaces. Different time zones. Endless pressure to play through pain because rankings do not wait and bills do not pause.

That is not a calendar. That is a grind. Tennis loves to celebrate resilience, toughness, and “pushing through.” But there is a difference between competitive grit and structural insanity. What we are seeing is not individual weakness. It is systemic overload. This is nuts.

If we want the players we love to watch to be physically and emotionally healthier, have longer careers, and simply play better and more consistent tennis, we have to stop pretending this schedule is normal or sustainable. We need to slow it down. We need real recovery time. And we need to stop acting shocked when January brings injuries that were completely predictable.

Sometimes the bravest thing a sport can do is stop, take a breath, and admit that something has gone too far. The WTA is past that point.