Iga Swiatek marches into the Beijing Round of 16, but her latest win comes under a cloud. The top seed advanced after Camila Osorio, her second-round opponent, retired abruptly with an injury following a medical timeout. The timing was striking. Just moments earlier, Swiatek had fired a double fault and slipped behind 0-40 in the second set. It’s a bittersweet way forward. Iga is still blazing in peak form, dropping only three games across three sets this week and delivering two commanding 6-0 sets. Even so, Osorio’s sudden exit is a sobering reminder of the injury toll hanging over the tournament.

Swiatek didn’t hold back her sympathy for Osorio after the match. “For sure, I’m sorry for Camila, because she’s always giving her 100%,” the Pole said. She shared that Osorio had flagged her injury from the very start. With her sharp eye on the day’s trend of retirements, Swiatek showed real empathy for the battles her fellow athletes endure each season.

Pressed about the mounting fatigue affecting players like Carlos Alcaraz late in the year, Swiatek gave a refreshingly honest answer. “Obviously the season is long. The second part of it I think people are more fatigued. The Asian Swing is the hardest because you feel the finish line coming, but you still have to push,” she reflected.

In Beijing, retirements continued to cast a shadow over the tournament. Jakub Mensik was forced to withdraw while trailing 1-4 against Alex de Minaur. The Australian now makes his first-ever semifinal appearance at the event after a strong run on court. On the WTA side, Lois Boisson bowed out at 2-6, 0-1 down to Emma Navarro. She had already taken a medical timeout for a left thigh issue in the opening set. Her leg was heavily bandaged, and she could not carry on in the second.

Looking ahead, Iga Swiatek didn’t rule out skipping events, even mandatory ones. She pointed to WTA rules that, in her view, make the calendar “pretty crazy.” Her remarks reflected just how brutal the grind gets as the season winds down. She said, “For me, like, I don’t know yet how my career is going to look like in couple years. Maybe I will have to choose some tournaments and skip them, even though they are mandatory. Yeah, like WTA with all these mandatory rules, they made this pretty crazy for us.”

This isn’t the first time Swiatek has used these words to describe the tennis tour. Remember last year? Ahead her 2024 Cincinnati, she opened up at the press conference, “There are sports that are really tough because, physically, you might get beat up. But most sports have four months off, sometimes even six. Our schedule is crazy, and it’s getting more crazy every year, which is scary. You just have to train wisely.”

This came after a rather hectic 2024 season for her. And she’s not alone in her thoughts about the calendar; players like Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, and more have raised concerns for the same. In June this year, Iga even spoke about her thoughts on the number of tournaments required to play.

Iga Swiatek calls out “super intense” tennis tour

The Pole, who was ranked No. 4 at the time, opened up about the tough choices she faces on tour. After reluctantly sitting out Poland’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in April, she spoke candidly about feeling stuck between representing her country and focusing on her own game. The relentless 11-month grind has become a hot topic, especially since the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) flagged it as ‘unsustainable’ in their March lawsuit against tennis’s governing bodies.

“The scheduling is super intense, it’s too intense,” Iga Swiatek told reporters in June, via Sportstar. “There’s no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year.” She emphasized the mental toll, explaining that players sometimes have to sacrifice national duty just to keep up with mandatory WTA 500 events or risk losing ranking points.

WTA players face a relentless schedule with over 20 mandatory tournaments a year. They must compete in the four Grand Slams, all 10 WTA 1000 events (now mandatory since 2024), and six WTA 500 tournaments. Skipping any without a valid reason means earning zero ranking points for that event, which can seriously damage their ranking. Because rankings count players’ best 16 to 18 results, those zeros weigh heavy, forcing players into a packed calendar filled with constant travel, little rest, and mounting pressure to perform week after week.

As Swiatek argued that these strict rules pile on pressure unnecessarily. “I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments. The quality would be better,” she said. So far this year, she’s played 15 tournaments and locked down three big titles—Wimbledon, Cincinnati, and most recently, Korea.

Now she’s setting her sights on another win at the China Open. Swiatek faces Emma Navarro next in the round of 16! Will she take down the American and keep her deep run alive? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments below!