"I know so many players are complaining" - Aryna Sabalenka shares her opinion on 2-week Masters 1000 events amid emerging discontent

Aryna Sabalenka recently expressed her views on several WTA 1000 events transitioning into a two-week schedule. The Madrid Open and the Italian Open were the most recent tournaments to employ the new format that has taken hold of the ATP and the WTA Tours over the last year.

Sabalenka has enjoyed a great campaign during this year's European claycourt season. The Belarusian reached the finals in Madrid and Rome, where she was defeated by her arch-rival and World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Speaking to the media after her runner-up finish in Rome, Aryna Sabalenka took on the much-talked-about subject of 1000-level events on both the men's and women's circuits going from one week in duration to two.

The World No. 2 began by acknowledging her peers taking exception to the shift in format. However, she insisted in the same breath that she preferred big tournaments that were two weeks long, as they offered a rest day between matches.

"Well, I know that so many players are complaining about that. They would prefer one-week tournament. Me personally, I don't know, it's tough call," Aryna Sabalenka said during her press conference.

"I know myself. For me is better to have one day off. I'm able to forget about tennis for a day and to be kind of like relaxed, not be mentally too much," she added.

Sabalenka added that she previously struggled with one week-long WTA 1000 events and that two weeks of play was better for her rhythm physically and mentally ahead of the French Open:

"Before, when it was one-week event, it was just too much. Sometimes matches are really high intensity. After you finish the tournament, me personally, I was mentally, physically off," she said. "I just wasn't ready physically and mentally for the next one. I would lose it in the first round and just go and prepare for Roland Garros."

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Aryna Sabalenka bats for two-week 1000-level events: "Anyway, you have a week off before the Grand Slam"

Aryna Sabalenka hits a backhand (Source: GETTY)

Top players like Elena Rybakina, Alexander Zverev and Caroline Garcia have taken umbrage at two weeks-long 1000-level events over the last few weeks. Rybakina, in particular, argued that it made very little sense for the Madrid Open and the Italian Open — two of the biggest tune-up events to Roland Garros — to be two weeks long.

"It may make sense for Indian Wells and Miami to have that duration, but to do it in these two events, shortly before Roland Garros... With the new rules there is no room to choose, we are forced to compete in too many tournaments," Elena Rybakina told the media (via Punto de Break).

Aryna Sabalenka, on her part, asserted during her post-Italian Open press conference that having a week off before the claycourt Major was enough for the pros to replenish their resources.

"I like it that way more because I have more chances to do well in the two tournaments in a row," Aryna Sabalenka told the media.

"Then anyway, you have a week off before the Grand Slam, which is enough time to recharge and prepare yourself mentally and physically for the Grand Slam," she added.