Gauff calls for shorter tennis seasons as ‘impossible’ to play more

Coco Gauff called Tuesday for shorter tennis seasons and said it was “impossible” to play more than she already does, after Iga Swiatek also hit out at the number of tournaments.

They were speaking at the China Open, where five players retired injured from matches on Monday.

“With more and more events being two weeks it just doesn’t really make sense to strain your body,” the American Gauff said after emerging unscathed to reach the quarter-finals.

“I would like to see in my lifetime on tour that a solution be made to make the season shorter,” the 21-year-old world number three added.

Gauff, the defending China Open champion and two-time major winner, weighed in after top seed Swiatek said on Monday she may skip mandatory tournaments to protect her health.

The amount of matches in the men’s and women’s tennis calendar has been a major talking point in recent years, with players such as Novak Djokovic cutting back the number of tournaments they compete in as they near the end of their careers.

Starting last year, the Women’s Tennis Association made it mandatory for top players to participate in each Grand Slam, 10 WTA 1000 events — which includes Beijing — and six 500-level tournaments.

“I guess on a business standpoint, it can kind of make sense, but on a player health standpoint, I don’t really agree with it,” Gauff said.

“I’ve basically played as much tennis as I possibly can.”

Poland’s world number two Swiatek called the WTA’s mandatory requirements “pretty crazy”.