Azarenka on the WTA schedule: "I don't think players of the current generation will be able to play for 20 years like I did"
Victoria Azarenka is putting her foot down. The former world number 1 and two-time Grand Slam winner remains a headline name on the WTA circuit.
The 35-year-old Belarusian is currently ranked 36th and continues to be a threat in major tournaments.
In a video on the YouTube channel What The Vlog, Azarenka discussed the current schedule issue in the tennis world, where the pace is increasingly intense and matches are more frequent, in a conversation with two other players, Daria Kasatkina and Elina Avanesyan.
"To be honest, we play way too much! I prefer that the WTA 1000s do not extend over a two-week period and stay in a one-week format.
We should have other tournaments for lower-ranked players nearby. We have too many tournaments and too many matches, which ends up impacting the quality of some matches.
For players like you (addressing Kasatkina and Avanesyan), this is going to become a real issue physically, because I don't think players of the current generation will be able to play for 20 years like I did.
The game is becoming more intense, the courts are slower, the balls are not the same. For longevity, this will not be sustainable.
I am not a fan of everything that is happening right now. In Cincinnati, they are also going to stretch the tournament over two weeks.
It seems excessive to me. I don’t remember anyone saying, 'Let's have more tennis.' The overall growth of tournaments and women's tennis is positive, but I am not sure that expanding the draws is really what we want.
We want more prize money, for example. I think people would like to have more high-quality tournaments," said Azarenka.
She will be participating, along with the rest of the world's best players, in the WTA 1000 at Indian Wells in California starting March 5.
