Six becomes five, maybe four
The WTA looks ready to loosen the grip its own calendar has on its best players. Bob Moran, who sits on the Tour Architecture Council, told Front Office Sports a few hours ago that the number of mandatory WTA 500 events will come down, possibly as early as next season.
Moran expects the vote to land during the US Open, which starts later this month. Players currently have to tick off six 500-level tournaments on top of their 1000 commitments. “We heard from the players that that has been difficult,” Moran said. “I’m very confident that at the U.S. Open, you’ll see that number come down.”
His estimate: “probably five or four.” The full mandatory load would then settle somewhere between 15 and 17 events, a figure that already swallows the four Grand Slams and seven WTA 1000s.
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Where the pressure came from
This did not appear out of nowhere. Aryna Sabalenka called the schedule “insane” back in January. A month later she pulled out of the 1000-level Dubai Open, and Iga Swiatek and several other leading names did the same. When the world No. 1 and the tour’s other marquee draw skip a mandatory event in the same week, the structure stops looking like a structure.
The Tour Architecture Council was set up in February to deal with exactly that. Thirteen members, chaired by Jessica Pegula, with Maria Sakkari, Victoria Azarenka and Katie Volynets among the players in the room.
What it changes
The circuit rules written a couple of years ago were designed to push players toward the bigger stops. That worked on paper and wore bodies down in practice. Cutting one or two mandatory 500s hands the top 20 something they have been asking for since the winter: room to choose. Tournaments outside the 1000 tier will have to sell themselves rather than lean on a rulebook.
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