Iga Swiatek has once again shared her plans to skip some of the sport’s biggest tournaments – even if it means she’ll be hit with a punishment. The world No. 2 suffered a 7-5 6-1 defeat to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open quarter-finals and admitted that she didn’t have much time to get used to the changes she made in the off-season.

But the Polish star now believes that she will have to miss some of the big events if she wants to keep working on her technique. “There are some stuff on the serve that I want to change, and I already changed that in the pre-season, but then, you know, matches come, and you don’t have that much time to, like, think about this. You don’t want to think about these kind of details when you play,” Swiatek said after losing to Rybakina.

“So then it comes back to the old patterns, you know. So basically, yeah, I’ll focus on that. I’ll see from there, because for sure, there are some stuff that I can change to play better, and I’ll try to do that in next weeks and months.”

Asked whether she’d take time off to put in those yards on the practice court, the six-time Major winner replied: “Yeah, I don’t feel it’s possible to do that, you know, in the short period of time that we have between tournaments. So last year I had trouble with making this kind of decision, but this year I’m trying to change my approach. So I think, for sure, we’ll skip some 1000 tournaments.

“I was never in this position, so I don’t know what the result will be, but I think it’s necessary, because if you want to improve your game, unless I want to stay, like, the same and just prepare for every tournament, then I can do that as well. I’ll play well, but if I want to improve something, it will be nice to have some time. Unfortunately, calendar doesn’t give that.”

At last year’s China Open, the world No. 2 explained: “I don’t know yet how my career will be in a couple of years. Perhaps I’ll have to choose some tournaments and skip them, even if they are mandatory. The WTA has made this a madness with all these mandatory rules.

“It’s impossible to fit everything in the calendar. I don’t think any elite player can manage it. We have to be smart, not worry too much about the rules and just think about what is healthy for us. It’s tough.”