Russian tennis star Daria Kasatkina came to Iga Swiatek’s defense after a tennis legend from her country took a dig at the Pole as she pointed out that Yevgeny Kafelnikov earned much less during his career than the current WTA world No. 1 has by the age of 23.
In case you have missed it, Swiatek issued some pretty alarming comments in her latest critique of the calendar, saying that it is causing tennis to be “less fun” for players and also warning the authorities that this “won’t end well” unless some things start changing for the better.
“So what can I say I’ve been kind of an advocate, saying that well, we shouldn’t be pushing and pushing for us to play more. Obviously, it’s not our decision, but for sure, I think we have too many tournaments in the season. It’s not gonna end well as it’s just it makes tennis less fun for us. Let’s just say, I mean, obviously, I love playing all these places but it’s pretty exhausting,” Swiatek told Sky Sports.
While the Polish five-time Grand Slam champion is not the only top player who feels this way about the tennis calendar, former two-time Major champ and Olympic gold medalist Kafelnikov didn’t like her comments at all and suggested that she should be paid “a lot less.”
“Is someone pushing you to play ??? All you fricking do is complain!! I’ll tell you what you deserve ! You deserve to get paid a lot less than you do now!! How about that??” Kafelnikov wrote on X.
Kasatkina shuts down Kafelnikov’s shot at Swiatek
Kafelnikov’s response to Swiatek didn’t sit well with the majority of fans, who absolutely slammed his take. And one of those was world No. 12 Kasatkina, who suggested that Kafelnikov is probably mad about earning $23 million in tournament prize money during his 11-year pro career while Swiatek already has bagged $31 million.
“Now I see why you are so pissed,” Kasatkina wrote.
It remains to be seen if Swiatek will make any responses to Kafelnikov.