Jessica Pegula to Lead WTA Panel That Will Suggest Potential Schedule, Rule Changes

The WTA is reconsidering its 11-month calendar with input from players including world No. 5 Jessica Pegula.

WTA Tour chair Valerie Camillo announced in a Tuesday open letter the formation of the Tour Architecture Council, a 13-person panel chaired by Pegula that will suggest changes for the organization.

Camillo wrote the council was being formed because "there has been a clear sentiment across the Tour that the current calendar does not feel sustainable for players given the physical, professional and personal pressures of competing at the highest level."

Pegula will be tasked with leading the panel in order to bring "an active top-player perspective to the Council's work," Camillo wrote.

The 2026 WTA Tour, which began on Dec. 29 of last year, is currently set to run through November.

The open letter comes after years of schedule criticism from some of the highest-profile players in both men's and women's tennis, who have expressed concern that the sport's short offseason contributes to players' injury risk.

Those critics include Pegula, who said in a January appearance on The Changeover Podcast there was "definitely not a long enough offseason."

"I think the two-week events have really kind of exasperated it a little bit," Pegula said in January. "Because before, Slams used to be two weeks, and that was a lot, it was a lot going on... so then now, we're going into these big 1000s, and now they're also two weeks.

"So you're going two weeks, two weeks, and then into a Slam, two weeks. So mentally, it's really tough. Along with that, and then obviously not having a long offseason, it just accumulates."

The tournament calendar isn't the only thing the council will be tasked at looking at. Camillo also wrote the panel will work on "identifying longer-term opportunities that will require broader coordination across the sport."

That could include working with the ATP and individual Grand Slam tournaments, potentially after initial changes have already been made in the WTA, Camillo told the AP's Howard Fendrich.

"The reason we don't want to wait for, 'Hey, let's do this as a collective system,' (is) we want to be timely, we want to be focused on making an immediate impact," Camillo told Fendrich.

Recommendations made by Pegula and the rest of the panel will be brought to the WTA Board for consideration. Changes suggested by the council could be put into place as soon as the 2027 WTA season, according to Camillo.