WTA players are waking up, slowly but surely

Finally, the WTA Tour-players seem to recognize what the WTA's new "2009 Roadmap Calendar" might mean for them.

The current World No. 2 Dinara Safina from Russia has warned of a possible boycott by leading players over changes to the schedule.

At the Moscow tournament earlier this month, the 22-year-old said: "If they don't listen to what we have to say we might even choose to boycott the new tour."

The new schedule is supposed to give players a "healthier calendar" with less changes of surface and a longer off-season. There will be four mandatory events in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing every player who qualifies for by ranking will have to play. Besides those, there will be five tournaments in Canada, Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati and Tokyo of which the athletes will have to play at least four.
Besides, there are going to be 20 Premier events (the former Tier I and Tier II tournaments) with players committed to play in at least 10.

Safina went on: "No one seems to understand which tournaments you can play and which you can't. They said the leading players would have to play in designated tournaments while lower-ranked players would be able to enter any event they like."

Compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova added: "I was told only two players from the top 10 could enter a smaller tournament like the Kremlin Cup next year. What if Jelena Jankovic and Serena or Venus (Williams) want to play here? Then all the top Russian players, and there are five of us in the top 10, will not be able to play in their home tournament. That's nonsense."

Now, Roland Garros champion and former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic from Serbia and Polish Agnieszka Radwanska want their fellow players to band together and fight the new rules, too.

During the Linz Open, Ivanovic took the same line as Safina and Kuznetsova: "We do have our voice and we have to come together." She explained that the changes were made in the middle of the season and that players wouldn’t really like to think about next year’s schedule when they’re playing grand slams: "Many players probably didn’t look deep into it and kind of let it go, and all of a sudden you’re there with the change so it’s a little bit hard. We’re all in the same position so we have to talk more between us."

Radwanska, who reached the top ten for the first time in her career this year, especially brought out that she’s unhappy about not being allowed to play the smaller events of the International series (former Tier III and IV tournaments): "After the new rules with the WTA I don’t want to be top 10 because the rules are so bad and everything is for the WTA. I cannot play the small tournaments and it's quite bad. I hate these rules. I can play just two small tournaments a year. We’re all saying this, but the WTA is doing everything for themselves, for the sponsors, but they don’t realize we have to choose where we want to play and not want to play."

- Zina Brown,
October 22, 2008

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