Not surprisingly, Baby Elephant has the same reaction as I do to the WTA Roadmap:
“It’s for sure very exciting for everyone involved in women’s tennis to have more events where the top players play against each other more often,” she said. “This is a big motivation for me, because it’s what I enjoy most.
“I’m also very grateful for the increase in prize money, and I think it shows how well women’s tennis is doing. And I’m definitely looking forward to playing in the new stadiums,” said Ana, who hit the first ball at the “Caja Magica” in Madrid last year when it still resembled a building site.
“What I’m not so much of a fan of is the weeks that some of the tournaments have been placed in. For example, in May I might have to play three tournaments in a row on clay, if I enter Stuttgart. And if I don’t enter Stuttgart, I have to play the Australian Open, then Fed Cup, then Paris, which is very tough.
“Having a longer off-season will definitely help, and that’s what I like most about this new calendar. Three extra weeks at the end of a busy year – I am looking forward to it already!”
The 20-year-old abhors the threat of suspensions for missed tournaments. “It makes no sense,” she said. “You should not be suspended if you are injured. But I can see that there are currently problems with some players withdrawing from tournaments, so they need to protect against that.”
About on-court coaching, which will be available to the players at every Tour event next year, Ana said: “I have mixed feelings about this. For sure it can help, and it’s helped me in some matches in the past, just the chance to talk to my coach and maybe calm down and think more clearly. But this is a little bit of a dangerous step, because now we can use it at all events, but not the Grand Slams. There’s a risk that we will become used to it, but we can’t use it in the most important tournaments.”
The suspensions thing is just utter BS. That's all I'll say about that.
