American Marconi Wireless News - WTA reduces 2027 schedule for world's top 50

The measure comes in response to recurring criticism about tennis' overloaded schedule.

Under the current system, the world's top 50-ranked players are obligated to play the four Grand Slam tournaments, 10 WTA 1000 events and six 500 events each year.

In 2027, they will be required to play only four WTA 500 tournaments instead of six, the women's tour announced in a statement released Thursday.

In addition, they will be able to substitute points earned at a WTA 1000 tournament with those earned at a WTA 500 or WTA 250 tournament.

In other words, a player who chooses not to compete in a mandatory WTA 1000 event could still include the points earned at a less prestigious tournament in her ranking -- whereas she currently risks earning zero points.

The WTA will assess the impact of these measures to decide whether or not to extend them into 2028.

In January, the ATP announced a similar measure, reducing the number of mandatory 500-level tournaments for the world's top 30 players from five to four, starting this season.

The WTA press release issued Thursday also announced that, for the first time, the prize money for "combined" WTA 1000 tournaments will be identical to that of the corresponding men's ATP events.

While the WTA and Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid already offered equal prize money, this was not yet the case for the tournaments in Rome, Canada and Cincinnati.

M.Thompson--AMWN