“Sometimes I feel like I’m this hamster in a wheel running to the next tournament.” Last year, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek did not mince any words while sharing her thoughts on reducing the number of events. Six years ago, a player at her rank would only play 15 mandatory tournaments. The growing popularity and investment in the sport, however, have bumped the numbers up to 21. The same was the case with Jessica Pegula, who didn’t get to thoroughly savor her title defense in Toronto and had to pack up her bags. Yet, this year was no different. 

The Cincinnati Open kicked off on the very same day as the Canadian Open finals. Despite the two-week events rule, it did not help amidst the weather complications and traveling overlaps. If the gap between two events was not enough, the players now face back-to-back matches with little to no time in between. For one, former world No. 11 Anna Kalinskaya is not ready to take it.

After a competitive 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 comeback win against 12th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 2025 Mubadala Citi DC Open finalist swept her ticket to the quarterfinals. However, she didn’t get much time to rest her body to appear in the game at her best. Not finding any other way to get the WTA to notice, she took to her Instagram to rant about the scheduling before her clash against Swiatek. “How can the WTA and tournament expect athletes to perform their best when the scheduling is this unfair?

“After my match against Alexandrova, I got home from the site at 2:40am and didn’t go to bed until 4am. I slept a bit and came to the site to practice. Then I get scheduled at 11am for tomorrow’s match – how does the tournament and WTA expect me to recover and continuously adjust my sleep pattern, which is one of the most important aspects of recovery? Seems a bit one sided.”

While she and Swiatek have time to rest ahead of their semifinal clash, the 26-year-old has to squeeze in enough sleep and practice in a shorter time frame. However, Swiatek in on the same boat since last year.

In the 2024 Cincinnati Open, the Polish star was clearly frustrated as she stated, “I love playing in all these places, but it’s pretty exhausting and I think most of the WTA players would tell you that, especially when you’re playing at a high level. I don’t think it should be like that because we deserve to rest a little bit more. Maybe people are going to hate me (for saying that).” And these aren’t the only ones.

ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert tweeted about the quarter-final timing on August 13 as he pondered, “You don’t even have to look at the schedule and know Iga Pop on 1st at 11 am. Wonder if her team asks for that or just happens that way a lot.” However, after Kalinskaya, many tennis fans have also voiced their opinion.

Fans stand with Anna Kalinskaya

Scheduling in tennis has been an ongoing issue that escalated last year with three major events in August: the Olympics, the Canadian Open, and the Cincinnati Open. This year, while the players get some time from the Summer Games, the rest of the schedule is still not spread out enough to let them have some proper rest. 

“Unfortunate. This happened to Ostapenko a few years ago at the US Open,” one fan commented on The Tennis Letter’s post on X. What was notable was the individual’s reference to Jelena Ostapenko’s post, which bore striking similarity to Anna Kalinskaya’s complaint.

“I think it’s really hard to recover from those night matches, because after beating world No. 1, I went to sleep at, like, 5:00 in the morning. I thought today I was, like, going to wake up and feel better. But honestly, I didn’t really feel much better,” Ostapenko wrote after losing to Coco Gauff at the 2023 US Open.

And this is exactly what Anna Kalinskaya highlighted in her story. Other fans argued, “Sleep is key for peak performance, and Kalinskaya’s point hits hard! Scheduling matches so quickly after a late finish isn’t fair to the players,” wrote a tennis fan. While another supported, “The WTA and Cincinnati Open need to prioritize athlete recovery if they want top-level tennis. Players deserve better!”

And there’s a good reason why so many agreed with Anna Kalinskaya’s sleep and recovery argument. Contemporary research has shown that a good night’s sleep can boost recovery, while bad sleep can have adverse effects on athletic performance.

A 2024 study by Heliyon on the effects of partial sleep deprivation showed how lack of sleep negatively impacts reaction time, balance, stamina, and power in athletes. Now that can be the difference between winning and losing a match. “I’m so confused how we have an entire extra week to make scheduling more comfortable, and we are still not getting it. Who is in charge???,” one frustrated fan added.

Since last year, the tours have added an additional week to their events to spread out their matches. However, the management of these matchups has still not become easier for the players, which was the whole point of the change.

One fan explained how even Iga Swiatek spoke against the WTA’s scheduling. “This happened to Iga once or twice. Iga made it well known she would prefer to play in front of no one than screw up her bedtime or other routines,” wrote the fan. While Swiatek didn’t complain about the schedule of a specific tournament, she did call out the frequency of contests during last year’s Cincinnati Open.

“For me, I think the scheduling is super intense. It’s too intense. There’s no point for us to play, like, over 20 tournaments in a year,” the 2025 Wimbledon champion said in her pre-tournament press conference. “Iga plays very few matches at night, when most people have the opportunity to watch,” the fan added, tying into Brad Gilbert’s post.

While the complaints from both sides of the tour have been piling up, no change is yet seen. But do you think Anna Kalinskaya should’ve posted her thoughts about the Cincinnati Open schedule? Tell us in the comments.