02/11/2023 21:25hs.
At WTA Finals This year is not going well at all: the courts had many errors on the surface and the organization of the tournament left a lot to be desired for the tennis players in Cancun. Aryna Sabalenka (1st) spoke first, through a statement, and then other participants joined in to extend the criticism during the championship. One of them was the Czech Marketa Vondrousova (6th), which in recent days had uploaded a story complaining about the poor condition of the surface. She now redoubled the bet and came out to cross with the people of the WTA, after her defeat against Ons Jabeour by 6-4 and 6-3.
After the fall against the Tunisian, in which Vondrousova had 20 unforced errors, the last Wimbledon champion spoke in the mixed zone and assured: “This should never happen again. I feel that these are not the WTA Finals for us. The court is not even for a $15,000 tournament (NdeR: the lowest level professional event)“.
Vondrousová atacó a la WTA.
Days ago, in addition to her video on Instagram stories, Vondrousova stated: “My first WTA Finals are not going as I expected. We work hard all year to get to this tournament, which it’s being a disappointment. The stadium is not prepared for the matches, I feel that the people of the WTA are not interested in how the players, who must compete on that court, feel. We feel that no one listens to us, no one is interested in our opinion, it is very sad.”
Every Swiatek, the world number 2, supported her colleague once their match was over: “It’s a pretty strange situation we have. There is potential to work on that, They decided late that we were going to play here. Marketing should be better. It’s a shame that we don’t have a full stadium and we can’t feel that this is a celebration of tennis.”
The WTA’s response
The venue for the WTA Finals, which distributes nine million dollars in prizes this year, was announced last month and that is why there were problems for the organization.
“We are happy to host the WTA Finals in Cancun for the first time and we worked hard to build a stadium for the top eight players and doubles teams to compete. The team has worked hard and quickly amidst climate challenges to ensure the stadium and field meet the strictest standards“, they explained in a statement.
The CEO of the WTA, Steve Simon, released a statement that tries to calm the waters: “It is clear that they are not happy with the decision to be in Cancun. I understand that and they were all heard. As I told you, this is not where we expected to be and the decision was based on a series of complicated factors. It is not a perfect event“We understand that the conditions are challenging and the WTA of course accepts responsibility for that.”
Markéta Vondroušová no aguanta más.
Furthermore, the Polish tennis player Magda Linette He assured that the WTA Player Council voted last month for the city of Cancun to hold the WTA Finals instead of Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, due to fear that Russian and Belarusian players would not be able to enter the country. such as Sabalenka.
“The disadvantage in Ostrava was that we had no absolute guarantee that all the girls would be able to play. “If one was not allowed to enter the country, the tournament would not take place, which would result in a huge fine, approximately the size of this entire investment,” said the Pole.
Criticism spreads
After her triumph at her premiere in Cancun, Sabalenka was blunt: “Honestly, it is a lack of respect of the WTA to its players, because at times it doesn’t even feel safe to move on the court. “That is not the level I expect from the WTA Finals.”
Sabalenka was the first to raise her voice.
“Thank you for this challenge that I am facing now, learning to adapt quickly to the conditions. Thanks for that. But It’s not something I expect from a high-level tournament.“, indicated the Belarusian about the tournament that is played on the cement field of the Paradisus stadium in the resort east of Cancun. “I’m happy to be able to ignore all that,” she added.
In addition to Sabalenka’s complaints, another player who was in action on the first day was the 2022 Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina (4th), who spoke after her loss in straight sets against the American Jessica Pegula (5th). “On the pitch, I don’t want to talk about it, but of course, it’s not right… everything was late and there was no time to fix it,” he said.
2023-11-02 21:25:15
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