So Kim held a presser yesterday to announce that she's going to play a "limited" schedule next year. I didn't know these are the things pressers were made of, but whatever. I mean, are we going to have press conferences for every tooth Jada loses? I sure hope so.
She'll play all the Slams, plus the Premier mandatories (IW, Miami, Madrid, Beijing), two Premier 5s (Montreal and Cincy) and a few warm up tournaments along the way, like Brisbane. I'm sure she'll try and play Eastbourne or S'Hertogenbosch as well to warm up for Wimbly.
Because Kim's not a Top 10 player (which is determined by rankings immediately after the YEC), the Top 10 rules in the Roadmap don't apply to her. She doesn't even have to play the mandatories if she doesn't want to. So she can pretty much shape her schedule as she pleases without any penalties, unless she's deemed a "Marquee" player, in which case she has to play 2 Premier $700ks (Eastbourne, for example, counts as a $700k). And, as we discussed in the podcast, I think there's something to be said about her decision to "under-commit" and revise her schedule as she goes along, committing to additional tournaments as needed.
So this is all fine and dandy now. But what happens in 2011 when, presumably, Kim is a top 10 player? I wonder if she'll increase her commitments or still tell the WTA to fuck itself.