Olympic tennis event begins three days after Wimbledon
Rybakina: ‘It’s crazy … hopefully something will change’
Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and a number of top tennis players have called for changes to the calendar in light of the “crazy” and “ridiculous” news that the tennis competition in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will begin just three days after Wimbledon ends.
The LA28 Olympics announced last month that the tennis event will take place between 19 and 28 July. With the Wimbledon 2028 men’s final on 16 July, the best performers at the tournament will have minimal time to fly to a different continent and adapt from grass to hard courts.
Asked whether she thinks adjustments should be made to the tennis calendar, Sabalenka said: “That’s definitely something that we can consider doing because three days after the men’s Wimbledon final, it’s ridiculous,” she said. “And an Olympics is something huge. It’s something that you play once in four years. So I feel like we should try to like open up the schedule a little bit and make sure that we have a bit like at least a week because it’s too much of a stress on the body.”
Rybakina agreed: “It’s just crazy to know that it’s just a couple of days after Wimbledon, but I think this year the dates were moved at the beginning of the year, so who knows? Hopefully something will change for next year so it’s more convenient for everybody.”
An Olympic summer is always a busy time in the tennis schedule, with the Games positioned between Wimbledon and the North American hard-court swing, but this will be a far tighter turnaround than Paris in 2024, which began 13 days after the end of Wimbledon.
Daniil Medvedev said he was not aware of the tight schedule but he also believes there should be changes to the timetable: “Now that I hear this, it would be great if something can be done. You tell me three days, make it at least six. I don’t know, even six is not good. But make it at least six, seven, try to do something.”
Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, said this is just one example of many where player welfare is not prioritised with tournament scheduling: “Overall, you can see that the schedule is crazy. I’ve been talking about that for years. At the beginning, everybody said I’m just a crybaby, but now more players are talking about it. It’s tough. This situation is going to be really difficult for the person that plays the final and then needs to get on hard courts and play on the other side of the world.”
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