Elena Rybakina ‘feeling destroyed’ and labels WTA ‘unprofessional’
Elena Rybakina has claimed that the leadership at the WTA is ‘weak’, after rain delays in Montreal caused major disruption to her quarter-final and semi-final matches.
Rybakina was one of many WTA players affected by the poor weather, with the Kazakh’s Canadian Open quarter-final contest with Daria Kasatkina not finishing until 3am.
UNRÉAL 🌙
Just short of 3am in Montréal after 3h27m of play, No.3 seed Elena Rybakina comes from a set down to defeat Kasatkina 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8) and reach the semifinals!#NBO23 pic.twitter.com/kuykyjYxHi
— wta (@WTA) August 12, 2023
The No.4 revealed that she was unable to get to sleep until around 5am, and although her semi-final with Liudmila Samsonova was rained off until Sunday she could not recover in time.
“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.”
Rybakina was beaten in the semi-final, 6-1 1-6 2-6, and spoke to press about how she felt that the WTA showed a lack of leadership and professionalism.
“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.”
Rybakina’s semi-final opponent, Samsonova, appeared to struggle with the situation as well and only managed to win one game in her first WTA 1000 final.
She was beaten by American No.1 Jessica Pegula, who managed to escape playing her semi-final on the same day as the final and win her second title at this level.
The WTA tour is now heading to Cincinnati as the hype for the US Open continues to build up, however after Rybakina’s comments about injuries it is unclear as to whether she will be competing.
The 24-year-old receives a bye into the second round as the fourth seed, where she is expected to play either 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko or former No.1 Karolina Pliskova.
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