“At the end of the day, we play a lot. We play a full schedule, we play 10, 11 months out of the year sometimes,” Pegula added. “And I think right now we’re living in an age where the priority is always staying healthy mentally and physically, and you never know where a player is at with that.
“Even if they’ve been winning matches, you don’t know if they’ve been dealing with an injury throughout that whole time or not. And that’s where you see people, especially top players, be a little bit more choosy with that schedule until maybe it changes in the future.”
The first order of business for the Council will be to focus on areas where the WTA has direct authority—for example, not the Grand Slams, which the WTA does not govern—while also identifying longer-term opportunities that will require broader coordination across the sport.
Other player representatives on the Tour Architecture Council include Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sakkari, Katie Volynets and Anja Vreg, while tournament representatives include Bob Moran, Laura Ceccarelli and Alastair Garland.