In an outburst against the WTA after her exit from the 2023 Canadian Open in Montreal, Elena Rybakina expressed her displeasure with the scheduling of her matches. Unfortunately for Rybakina, this is not the only scheduling dispute she had to endure this year. Similar to what was experienced in Montreal, rain hampered the Italian Open in Rome, and Rybakina was among the players who suffered.
“I’m not really happy about it but it,” Elena said at the press conference at the Canadian Open. She revealed her disappointment in the WTA during the interview after she lost to Liudmila Samsonova.
Elena Rybakina feels ‘destroyed’ after Montreal scheduling:
“I feel destroyed bc of the scheduling & the whole situation. I’m not really happy about it but it is what it is.. players can’t do much in these situations. The weather wasn’t helpful. I picked up some injuries..” pic.twitter.com/xd7uJ5MVOM
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) August 13, 2023
Her match with Kasatkina was prolonged and finished at 3 a.m. local time. While the delay in time actually worked in favor of Rybakina, she wasn’t happy. Elena made sure to put across that she wouldn’t entertain the same situation again in the future. However well the timing may have worked for Elena, it was a physically very taxing match. She felt “destroyed” after the match due to the ungodly timing, weather, and conditions of the match.
She targeted the WTA and revealed her discontent with the leadership at WTA. Elena went on to express her unhappiness with the officials and WTA. She admitted how this had been the first time a match had been prolonged for so long. But Rybakina made it a point to add how this should have never happened, whether it was the first time or not.
Rennae Stubbs aligned alongside Elena Rybakina to call out WTA
Rennae Stubbs, a former coach of Serena Williams, also expressed her own frustrations with the situation. She posted on social media expressing her discontentment. Stubbs said that the late-night finish was unfair and that it should never have happened in the first place. Stubbs added that the players would much prefer to play in two games in one sitting than to struggle through the tiresome process of finishing their matches in the early morning.
This shouldn’t happen! I know the weather was crap, but this isn’t fair. I think players would prefer two matches in a day then this. https://t.co/8cwlcdHWdm
— Rennae Stubbs 🟦👍🏼 (@rennaestubbs) August 14, 2023
Rain caused another scheduling error on Saturday, which led to the postponement of Rybakina and Liudmila Samsonova’s semifinal match to Sunday, the same day as the day of the championship match. Samsonova defeated Rybakina with scores of 1-6, 6-1, and 6-2 to go to the day’s final matchup with Jessica Pegula.
The next competition for Elena Rybakina will be the Western & Southern Open in 2023. The fourth seed will begin the tournament against the victor of the matches between Karolina Pliskova and Jelena Ostapenko after receiving a bye in the first round.