DUBAI (Reuters) – Top seeds are struggling for results in the Middle East swing due to the crammed calendar and the travel involved in playing back-to-back WTA 1000 tournaments after a major, Iga Swiatek said after Thursday’s quarter-final exit in Dubai.
Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva knocked out second seed Swiatek in straight sets as the world number two failed to win a title in the Middle East for the first time in four years.
Swiatek had won the Qatar Open from 2022-2024 but was knocked out in the semi-finals last week. The Pole had also reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open last month and has yet to win a title this year.
“For sure it’s a calendar thing. We’re not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week-by-week,” Swiatek told reporters when asked if playing back-to-back WTA 1000 tournaments was a tricky challenge.
“Also it’s not like some time ago that outside of top-20 players, they were just getting destroyed more. Now anybody can win these tournaments. It is like that since a couple of years.
“But I feel like the calendar is not helping. Again, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls – it’s not easy, I’m not surprised.”
Aryna Sabalenka has also had a Middle East swing to forget after the Australian Open runner-up lost early in both Qatar and Dubai, with the world number one saying she and her team need to change her preparation for these events.
Swiatek said her semi-final run at the Australian Open had given her less time to prepare for tournaments in the Middle East.
“I had the same kind of mindset as like every year… But the preparation for sure was different. Before, I lost in Australia early, so I had time to do some stuff. This year I didn’t,” Swiatek added.
“Honestly, I’m not that direct usually, but I would blame this performance on the lack of practice before because I didn’t have time.
“I’m not happy with the results. I feel like I under-performed. I need to talk with my team a bit and plan the next weeks a bit differently because I haven’t had much time to practice before these tournaments.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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