The world No 1 expects to skip events again this year and face likely sanctions rather than put her health at risk.
Published On 8 Jan 20268 Jan 2026
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World number one Aryna Sabalenka has accused tennis authorities of “following their interests” and failing to put player welfare first over what she called an “insane” tennis season.
The Belarusian expects to skip events this year rather than put her health at risk over the course of the season, even though she knows she is likely to be sanctioned by the WTA Tour for doing so, the world number one said on Thursday.
Top players are obliged to compete in all four Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000 tournaments and six WTA 500 events under WTA rules, with the punishment for missing them ranging from rankings points deductions to fines.
In 2025, Sabalenka competed in just three WTA 500 events – Brisbane, Stuttgart and Berlin – making her one of several high-ranked players, including world number two Iga Swiatek, to be docked ranking points.
Asked if she would change her plans for 2026, the four-time Grand Slam champion told reporters: “The season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us, as you see so many players getting injured …
“The rules are quite tricky with mandatory events, but I’m still skipping a couple of events in order to protect my body, because I struggled a lot last season,” she said after beating Sorana Cirstea at the Brisbane International.
“Even though the results were really consistent, some of the tournaments I had been playing completely sick or I’d been really exhausted from overplaying. This season, we will try to manage it a little bit better, even though they are going to fine me by the end of the season.
“But it’s tricky to do that. You cannot skip 1000 events. It’s really tricky, and I think that’s insane what they do. I think they just follow their interests, but they’re not focusing on protecting all of us.”
The number of events in the tennis calendar has been a frequent complaint in recent months among the sport’s biggest names.
Men’s world number one Carlos Alcaraz is another to have voiced concern about the amount of tennis he plays, although he has also signed up to feature in lucrative exhibition matches.
He faces great rival Jannik Sinner in one such event on Saturday in South Korea, barely a week before the Australian Open.
The men’s and women’s circuits have faced criticism due to their 11-month seasons, and both tours came under new scrutiny during the “Asian swing” towards the end of last year, with injuries piling up.
While the swirl of chatter around Travis Kelce on Christmas Day was on whether he plans to retire at the end of the season, the 11-time Pro Bowl tight end quietly moved up to No. 9 on the NFL all-time receiving list.
Kelce’s fifth and last catch in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos was No. 1,077, pushing him past Anquan Boldin. With two more receptions in the Chiefs’ regular-season finale, Kelce will surpass Terrell Owens in the No. 8 spot.
Statistics were seemingly the last thing on Kelce’s mind as he walked off the Arrowhead Stadium field on Thursday, perhaps for the last time. The Chiefs finish the season on the road next week against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Kelce’s recent years are inextricably linked to his fiance Taylor Swift. Was this the last time the music megastar would grace the Kelce family luxury suite to watch her beau rack up the receptions? (If so, let the record show that Swift wore a red bomber jacket from the Frankie Shop.)
Kelce, 36, admitted he was feeling reflective afterward.
“A whole lot of emotions,” he told reporters. “You’ve got everybody in the world watching you. You get to go out there with the young guys on prime-time television. Young guys getting an opportunity to taste what this NFL life is like.”
For Kelce, the NFL life has been fulfilling. He’s won three Super Bowls and is all but certain to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And he’s played his entire 13-year career with the Chiefs.
So while he sorted through emotions and memories after the game, he basked in the adulation beforehand.
“You only get a few of those where you get to stand there and appreciate 70,000 Chiefs fans cheering for you,” he explained. “I always embrace that moment.
“You feel the generations of happiness and the love [the fans] have. It’s a beautiful thing, man.”
For a decade, Kelce was a regional sports figure, revered in the Midwest as a hard-nosed, consistent producer on the field. His profile began to change ahead of the 2022 season when he and his brother, Jason, launched an immediately popular podcast, “New Heights.”
Kelce and Swift began dating ahead of the 2023 season, and a year later, the Kelce brothers signed a three-year, $100-million podcast deal with Amazon’s Wondery. Then in August, Kelce and Swift announced their engagement.
Tight ends, with their three-point stances and proximity to tackles and guards, traditionally don’t seek or attract attention. But Kelce is now a full-fledged national celebrity.
Just don’t allow that to obscure his numbers. Kelce has 73 catches for 839 yards in 2025, putting him alongside Jerry Rice as the only players in NFL history to eclipse the 800‐yards receiving mark in 12 consecutive seasons. Kelce also is the only tight end to exceed 90 catches for seven seasons in a row, a streak that will end this year.
Rice, the former San Francisco 49ers great, is the NFL‘s all-time leading receiver with 1,549 catches. Larry Fitzgerald is next with 1,432. Then come the only tight ends with more catches than Kelce: Tony Gonzalez (1,325) and Jason Witten (1,228).
Should Kelce decide to play another season, he almost certainly would climb to No. 5, passing Marvin Harrison (1,102), Cris Carter (1,101) and Tim Brown (1,094) in addition to Owens.
Kelce may have already decided whether this is the right time to retire. He just isn’t ready to say so, indicating he will let the Chiefs know soon after the season ends.
“I’ll let that be a decision I’ll make with my family, friends and the Chiefs organization when the time comes,” he said.
The Denver Broncos eked out a 20-13 victory as they chase the AFC top seed the Chiefs have claimed so often in the last decade, but Travis Kelce was still the headline news in what could have been his final game in Kansas City.
The 36-year-old seemed to soak in his pre-game introduction more than usual then lingered on the field afterwards with plenty of Broncos players coming over to share a few words and show their respect to the three-time Super Bowl champion – with both his mother Donna and fiance Taylor Swift in the stands watching on.
Kelce and his Chiefs played hard despite being out of the play-offs and being two-touchdown underdogs without injured star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The home crowd and home defence made it tough for a Denver team looking to emulate Kansas City’s recent success, but the Broncos’ own star quarterback Bo Nix eventually got them over the line with a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Denver are certainly emulating last season’s Chiefs in winning tight games, with this their 11th one-score victory – four more than anyone else – while they’re the only team in NFL history to earn 12 comeback wins in one season.
But head coach Sean Payton will want a more explosive element to the offence, which dominated possession but struggled to make big plays and score touchdowns, making it a much closer game than it really should have been against a severely depleted Chiefs side.
While the Broncos are building there could be some upheaval in Kansas City this summer, whether that includes losing Kelce at the end of his 13th season remains to be seen.
WASHINGTON — The national Republican Party leadership, spurred by chairman Lee Atwater, today cut all ties to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, the newly elected Louisiana Republican state lawmaker.
Party spokeswoman Leslie Goodman said 28 voting members of the party’s executive committee unanimously repudiated during a telephone vote Duke’s racist and anti-Semitic views and barred financial or other assistance for him.
Duke, 38, a former klan grand wizard, was elected to the Legislature Saturday from a suburban New Orleans district in a narrow victory over builder John Treen, 63, who was backed by President Bush and former President Ronald Reagan.
The resolution adopted by the national Republicans in effect “excommunicates” Duke, according to Atwater, who said Duke is neither a Republican nor a Democrat but “a charlatan and a faker” using Republicans to promote his racist agenda.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Travis Kelce has played 96 regular-season home games for the Kansas City Chiefs.
The next one might be the last.
The 36-year-old Kelce, who was chosen for the Pro Bowl for the 11th time on Tuesday, will be inside Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night for a Christmas showdown with the Denver Broncos.
And with the Chiefs eliminated from playoff contention for the first time in a decade, and a trip to Las Vegas for their finale, it could be the last time that Kelce walks off his beloved field.
“What Travis has done to this organization, to his teammates, his coaches, this city — it’s special,” Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “I hope like hell that’s not true. I just have so much respect for him.”
Kelce has not yet announced whether he will retire after a superlative 13-year career in which he won three Super Bowl rings and was an All-Pro on four occasions. But he has said that his decision will be made quickly after the season ends, giving the Chiefs ample time to not only prepare for free agency and the draft but their future without him.
“I’d rather just keep the focus on this team right now,” Kelce said last week, “and all the conversations I have with the team and everything moving forward will be with them. And I think it’s a unique time in my life, and unfortunately I know when the season ends this year. Typically we go into it and we don’t know when it will end.”
He’s had a heck of a final season, if that turns out to be the case.
After doubling down on fitness after the Chiefs were waylaid by the Eagles in the Super Bowl last February, Kelce has played in every game during a difficult season for the team. He has 68 catches for 803 yards, allowing him to join Jerry Rice as the only players in NFL history to eclipse the 800-yards receiving mark in 12 consecutive seasons.
Kelce also has five touchdown receptions, matching the most he’s had in the past three seasons.
And while Kelce could have shut it down after the Chiefs were eliminated from postseason contention for the first time since his first full season in the NFL, he has continued to take the field every day. He had one catch for six yards in last week’s 26-9 loss to the Titans, but it pushed his streak — the longest active one in the league — to 189 games with at least one reception.
It didn’t help that backup quarterback Gardner Minshew joined Kelce’s good friend, Patrick Mahomes, by suffering a bone bruise one week after the two-time MVP tore knee ligaments. Chris Oladokun finished the game at quarterback and will start on Thursday night against Denver.
“I will say this: What [Kelce] is going through even these last couple games — we’re out of the playoffs, we’re out, and he’s out there every day, practicing, leading, helping people out,” Nagy said. “That should show a lot of these younger guys why he’s playing this game, and why he is so special.”
Etc.
Cornerbacks Trent McDuffie (knee), Jaylen Watson (groin) and receivers Nikko Remigio (knee), Rashee Rice (concussion) and Tyquan Thornton (concussion) did not practice Tuesday. … The Chiefs have signed quarterback Shane Buechele as Oladokun’s backup for the rest of the season. TE Noah Gray would serve as the emergency quarterback.
When an LAPD captain stood up during a meeting this fall and asked Chief Jim McDonnell to explain the role of his most trusted deputy, Dominic Choi, other top brass in attendance waited with anticipation for the reply.
Multiple department sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting and speak candidly about their boss, said McDonnell’s answer drew confused looks.
Some officials had began to wonder how closely the 66-year-old McDonnell, who stepped into the job in November 2024 after recent work in consulting and academia, was involved in day-to-day operations. Choi is often attached to his hip, and McDonnell has privately advised other senior staff to go through the assistant chief for key matters, leaving some uncertainty about how shots are called, the sources said.
At the senior staff meeting, McDonnell joked about not wanting to talk about Choi — who was not present in the room — behind his back, and told the captain that Choi was simply his “eyes and ears,” without offering more clarity, according to the sources.
The awkward exchange reflected the uncertainty that some LAPD officials feel about McDonnell’s leadership style.
Over the last year, The Times spoke with numerous sources, from high-ranking commanders to beat cops on the street, along with recently retired LAPD officials and longtime department observers, to gather insights on McDonnell’s first 12 months as the city’s top cop.
By some measures, McDonnell has been a success. Violent crime citywide has continued to decline. Despite the LAPD’s hiring struggles, officials say that applications by new recruits have been increasing. And support for the chief remains strong in some political circles, where backers lauded his ability to navigate so many challenges, most not of his own making — from the city’s financial crisis and civil unrest to the devastating wildfires that hit just two months after he was sworn in.
At the same time, shootings by police officers have increased to their highest levels in nearly a decade and the LAPD’s tactics at protests this summer drew both public outrage and lawsuits. Some longtime observers worry the department is sliding back into a defiant culture of past eras.
“You’ve got a department that’s going to bankrupt the city but doesn’t want to answer for what it is going to be doing,” said Connie Rice, a civil rights attorney.
In an interview with The Times, McDonnell said he is proud of how his department has performed. He said his bigger plans for the LAPD are slowly coming together.
McDonnell rose through the LAPD’s ranks early in his career, and acknowledged much has changed in the 14 years that he was away from the department. That’s why he has leaned “heavily” on the expertise of Choi, who served as interim chief before he took over, he said.
“He’s been a tremendous partner for me coming back,” McDonnell said.
Dominic Choi, who served as interim LAPD chief before Jim McDonnell was hired, speaks at a 2024 news conference with federal law enforcement officials.
(Al Seib / For The Times)
McDonnell added that he has relied just as much on his other command staff, encouraging them to think and act for themselves “to get the job done.”
Retired LAPD commander Lillian Carranza is among those saying the new chief has failed to shake things up after Michel Moore stepped down abruptly in January 2024.
Instead, she said, McDonnell has lacked the decisiveness required to make real changes in the face of resistance from the police union and others.
“It appears that the chief thought he was coming back to the LAPD from 15 years ago,” she said of McDonnell. “It’s been a disappointment because of the individuals that he’s promoted — it just seems like Michel Moore 2.0 again.”
There are notable contrasts in style and strategy between McDonnell and his predecessor.
Moore, who did not respond to a call seeking comment, often used his pulpit to try to get out ahead of potential crises. McDonnell has kept a lower profile. He has largely halted the regular press briefings that Moore once used to answer questions about critical incidents and occasionally opine on national issues.
Unlike Moore, who developed a reputation as a demanding manager who insisted on approving even minor decisions, McDonnell has seemingly embraced delegation. Still, his perceived deference to Choi, who also served as a top advisor to Moore, has led to questions about just how much has really changed. Choi has represented the department at nearly a fourth of all Police Commission meetings this year, a task usually performed by the chief.
Former LAPD Chief Michel Moore attends an event at the Police Academy on Dec. 7, 2023.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
It’s telling of their closeness, LAPD insiders said, that Choi occupies the only other suite on the 10th floor of LAPD headquarters with direct access, via a balcony, to McDonnell’s own office.
Choi did not respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Karen Bass chose McDonnell as chief after a lengthy nationwide search, picking him over candidates who would have been the first Black woman or first Latino to lead the department. He offered experience, having also served as police chief in Long Beach and as L.A. County sheriff.
McDonnell has mostly avoided the type of headline-grabbing scandals that plagued the department under Moore. Meanwhile, homicides citywide were on pace to reach a 60-year low — a fact that the mayor has repeatedly touted as her reelection campaign kicks into gear.
In a brief statement, the mayor commended McDonnell and said she looked forward to working with him to make the city safer “while addressing concerns about police interaction with the public and press.”
Jim McDonnell shakes hands with Mayor Karen Bass after being introduced as LAPD chief during a news conference at City Hall on Oct. 4, 2024.
(Ringo Chiu / For The Times)
McDonnell has taken steps to streamline the LAPD’s operations, including folding the department’s four homicide bureaus into the Robbery-Homicide Division and updating the department’s patrol plan to account for the department being down fewer officers.
John Lee, who chairs the City Council’s public safety committee, said the chief is the kind of experienced and steady leader the city needs as it gets ready to host the World Cup and Olympics. McDonnell, he said, deserves credit for guiding the LAPD through “unprecedented situations,” while largely delivering on promises to reduce crime and lift officer morale.
But among the rank and file, there is continued frustration with the department’s disciplinary system. The process, which critics outside the LAPD say rarely holds officers accountable, is seen internally as having a double standard that leads to harsh punishments for regular cops and slaps on the wrist for higher-ranking officials. Efforts at reform have repeatedly stalled in recent years.
McDonnell told The Times that officers have for years felt that the system was stacked against them. One of his priorities is “making the disciplinary system more fair in the eyes of those involved in it,” he said, and speeding up internal affairs investigations that can drag on for a year or more without “jeopardizing accountability or transparency.”
He said he’d like to give supervisors greater authority to quickly weed out complaints that “are demonstrably false on their face” based on body camera footage and other evidence.”
But the lack of progress on the issue has started to rankle the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for officers below the rank of lieutenant. The League urged McDonnell to take action in a statement to The Times.
“The way we see it, the Chief is either going to leverage his mandate and implement change, much to the chagrin of some in his command staff that staunchly support the status quo, or he will circle the wagons around the current system and continue to run out the clock,” the statement read. ”There’s no need to keep booking conference rooms to meet and talk about ‘fixing discipline,’ it’s time to fish or cut bait.”
Perhaps more than anything, the ongoing federal immigration crackdown has shaped McDonnell’s first year as chief.
Although McDonnell is limited in what he can do in the face of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies, some of the chief’s detractors say he is missing a moment to improve relations between police and citizens of a majority-Latino city.
The son of Irish immigrants from Boston, McDonnell drew criticism during President Trump’s first term when, as L.A. County sheriff, he allowed ICE agents access to the nation’s largest jail. As LAPD chief, McDonnell has often voiced his support for long-standing policies that restrict cooperation on civil immigration enforcement and limit what officers can ask members of the public about their status in the country.
“I get hate mail from two extremes: those that are saying we’re not doing enough to work with ICE and those that are saying we’re working with ICE too much,” McDonnell said.
U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino marches with federal agents to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on Aug. 14.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, who runs the department’s detective bureau, said McDonnell has to tread lightly politically and can’t follow the suggestion of some people that “we should use our law enforcement agencies to fight back against the feds.”
“He can’t come out and say, ‘We oppose ICE, get out of our city,’ like some of these other clowns are doing,” Hamilton said. “I mean, what, are you just trying to bring the wrath?”
But the LAPD’s response to the protests against Trump’s agenda has repeatedly led to bad optics. Officers have stepped in to keep the peace when angry crowds form at the scene of ICE arrests, which some said created the appearance of defending the federal actions.
During large demonstrations — which have occasionally turned unruly, with bricks and Molotov cocktails hurled by some in the crowds — LAPD officers on foot or horseback have not held back in swinging batons, firing less-lethal munitions and even launching tear gas, a measure that hadn’t been deployed on the streets of L.A. in decades.
Press rights organizations and a growing list of people who say they were injured by police have filed lawsuits, potentially adding to the tens of millions in the legal bills the department already faces for protest-related litigation from years that predated McDonnell.
Attorney Susan Seager, who is suing the department over its recent protest tactics, said that McDonnell has seemed unwilling to second-guess officers, even when confronted with clear video evidence of them violating court-imposed restrictions.
“I’ve never seen LAPD so unhinged at a protest shooting people,” she said.
An LAPD officer pushes back an anti-ICE protester during a rally on “No Kings Day” in downtown Los Angeles on June 14.
What goes unmentioned by the LAPD’s detractors, he said, is how volatile and “kinetic,” protests have been, requiring officers to use all means available to them to avoid being overwhelmed by hostile crowds.
Reporters and others on the front lines should know the risks of being there, he said.
“If the journalists are in that environment, they sometimes get hit with less-lethal projectiles — as do our police officers who are in that same environment,” he said.
The Chargers quarterback had passed for 139 yards and ran for 66 more in a 22-19 win just a week after undergoing surgery to stabilize a fracture in his non-throwing hand. Now, after one of the biggest wins of the season, he was hoping to receive good news about his injury despite being sacked a career-worst seven times.
The scans showed his hand was swollen, but it had improved since surgery, Herbert said. The results provided him with a sense of optimism heading into the Chargers’ AFC West showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.
“I think compared to the days after surgery, I think it’s a lot better now,” Herbert said. “I think it was just sore. I think having played on it, using it, and kind of falling on it too, I think that kind of helped, and was some of the reason why it was sore.”
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh described Herbert’s performance against the Eagles as “the most competitive thing” he ever saw. Herbert, however, gave a negative self-assessment — he threw an interception and lost the ball once on two fumbles. For Herbert, it wasn’t good enough for a Chargers team vying to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in more than three decades.
Offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who praised Herbert’s grit after the win over the Eagles, was proud to hear Herbert taking responsibility for his mistakes.
“First of all, I love that,” Roman said. “That tells me everything I need to know about that individual. … A great leader, setting a great example there. But on the flip side, he did what he had to do to win that game. He’s smart enough to recognize that that’s not how he wants to win every game, and he will adjust accordingly.”
Chargers center Bradley Bozeman, who has snapped the ball to Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Bryce Young over his nine-year NFL career, said Herbert is one of one.
“He’s the best quarterback — no shot to any quarterback ever played with — but he’s the best quarterback ever,” said Bozeman, who joined the Chargers before the start of the 2024 season. “He’s committed to what he does. He’s tough as a damn nail.”
That toughness could prove to be too much for the Chiefs. A Chargers (9-4) win on Sunday (in combination with several other factors) could potentially eliminate Kansas City (6-7) from postseason contention for the first time since 2014.
Although the Chargers are trying to sweep the Chiefs for the first time since 2013, safety Derwin James Jr. knows they can’t underestimate a Kansas City team that has won the last nine division crowns. James, second on the Chargers in tackles (70), is expecting all the challenges that come with facing Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead Stadium in 20-degree weather.
“Every time you go out there, everybody’s gonna play desperate to win, because they just want to win,” James said. “We’re desperate, they’re desperate — so let’s go out there and play.”
