From courts not being ready to players feeling “disrespected by the WTA” and Mother Nature causing havoc with the scheduling, the drama doesn’t seem to stop at WTA Finals in Mexico.
The year-end showpiece Finals at Estadio Paradisus didn’t live up to the hype as the players didn’t have practice courts to their dispense ahead of their ties due to some unfinished construction work at venue just before the start of the tourney.
When the event started the WTA top guns including, Aryna Sabalenka, Marketa Vondrousova, and Iga Swiatek submitted their complains about the court conditions with the World No. 1 ripping into the WTA by saying “as a player, I feel really disrespected by the WTA.”
And now Mother Nature has added her own flavor by pouring heavy rain and blowing strong gusts to further elevate the chaos in Cancun during Sabalenka Vs. Rybakina group stage tie on Thursday.
The venue was wet and wild at times during the final Bacalar Group match as the player fought for the semifinal berth. Following the qualification of Jessica Pegula, it was a straight shootout between Sabalenka and Rybakina for the final four spot in the midst of multiple rain interruptions.
The Belarusian sealed the opening set but Rybakina hit to take the second frame to 5-3 by breaking the WTA #1 however, the officials suspended the play at 11:40 local time – more than three hours after the match started.
“Play is suspended for the night due to rain,” the WTA confirmed on social media.
“The conclusion of this match and (Coco) Gauff/Pegula vs. (Laura) Siegemund/(Vera) Zvonareva will be moved to Friday’s Order of Play.”
Earlier in the week, Sabalenka bashed the WTA for the poor playing conditions calling it unacceptable.
“I have to say, though, that I am very disappointed with the WTA and the experience so far at the WTA Finals. As a player, I feel really disrespected by the WTA. I think most of us do,” she wrote on social media.
“This is not the level of organisation we expect for the Finals. To be honest, I don’t feel safe moving on this court a lot of the time, the bounce is not consistent at all, and we weren’t able to practise on this court until yesterday for the first time.
“It’s just not acceptable to me with so much on the line and so much at stake.”
World No. 2 Pole Iga Swiatek said she was “not comfortable” on the court while Czech Vondrousova stated that WTA is “not interested in our opinions”.
“(The) stadium is not at all ready for the matches and to me it feels like the people from WTA are absolutely not interested in how we who are supposed to play on that court feel. We do not feel that anyone listens to us and is interested in our opinions. Very sad,” the Wimbledon champion wrote.
It feels that both WTA and Mother Nature are equally cruel to the players at the Cancun Finals this year and there is nothing much that players can do about them apart from protesting and issuing statements.