Jessica Pegula to chair panel designed to improve calendar

(Getty/Robert Prange)

World No.5 and 2024 US Open finalist Jessica Pegula will lead a 13-person panel to put forward ideas to change the calendar, ranking points rules, and requirements for mandatory events.

It comes after a letter was sent to players and tournament officials by WTA Tour chair Valerie Camillo, who hopes that a revised setup can be ticked off next year.

"There has been a clear sentiment across the Tour that the current calendar does not feel sustainable for players given the physical, professional, and personal pressures of competing at the highest level," Camillo wrote in the letter, which The Associated Press obtained.

She confirmed that the council "will focus first on areas where the WTA has direct authority to drive change, while also identifying longer-term opportunities that will require broader coordination across the sport", in collaboration with the ATP and the four Grand Slams.

"We are very open to looking broadly at a host of potential solutions to this. The idea is: We go in there with a very open mind and open dialogue," Camillo told the AP. "We're not going to solve the entire world. The reason we don't want to wait for, 'Hey, let's do this as a collective system' (is) we want to be timely, we want to be focused on making an immediate impact."

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Active players on the council include Maria Sakkari, Katie Volynets, and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.

Camillo and WTA CEO Portia Archer are also part of the panel.

Last year, the schedule demand pushed some players to breaking point, with Aussie Alex de Minaur admitting after his five-set loss to Alexander Bublik at Roland-Garros that he felt "burnt out".

"I know that the schedule is very tough, and it's not easy, and I think at some point in the year, if you do have a few good results, I think some weeks, unfortunately, do become a little bit of a sacrifice if you're thinking long term," Pegula said in Dubai.

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