Elena Rybakina has criticized the WTA management calling them ‘weak’ after rain delays disrupted matches in Montreal that also included her quarter and semifinal clashes.
The Kazakh was one of the many WTA players affected by the poor weather conditions as she had to complete her quarterfinal clash with Russia’s Daria Kasatkina not before 3am.
Criticizing the WTA leadership, the 2022 Women’s Wimbledon Champion said that she was unable to get to sleep until around 5am and though her semifinal against Liudmila Samsonova was delayed until Sunday but she was still not unable to properly recover in time for the match.
“I feel destroyed just because of the scheduling and the whole situation,” said Elena Rybakina after the match. “I’m not really happy about it, but yeah, it is what it is. Unfortunately, players cannot do much in these situations. The decision is not really ours. The weather was not helpful.”
After getting beaten in the semi-final, 6-1 1-6 2-6, Rybakina spoke to press about the lack of leadership and professionalism in Women’s Tennis Association.
“It’s the first time and hopefully the last time because I think it’s been a little bit unprofessional from the — I cannot say really the tournament because I think that the most important is the WTA here,” claimed the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
She continued, “Leadership is a little bit weak for now, but hopefully something is going to change because this year it was many situations which I cannot really understand.
“Now I have to see how I feel and evaluate the small injuries which I have now, so we will see (if my planning changes). I have to be smart in making any decision because US Open is soon.”
The 24-year old’s next opponent also appeared to struggle with matches getting rained off and only won one match in her maiden WTA 1000 final appearance. The Russian was beaten by American #1 Jessica Pegula who remained lucky to evade the double duty and clinched her second tour-level title.
The WTA tour will now move to Cincinnati before entering the US Open however, in the light of one-time Slam champion injury comments, it needs to be seen if she will be competing at the New York major. She will receive a R1 bye as the WTA #4 seed. Rybakina is expected to open her campaign against Czech Karolina Pliskova or 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko.