Wimbledon loses two well-known WTA names to withdrawals over ranking points issue
Wimbledon have lost two names from the women’s singles draw, with Naomi Osaka and Eugenie Bouchard announcing their withdrawals.
Osaka, who is a four-time major winner, said following her exit from Roland Garros that she was probably going to skip Wimbledon because of the removal of world ranking points.
She said that reduced the event to nothing more than an “exhibition” and she could not motivate herself for that.
Officially, though, she has blamed an Achilles injury on her withdrawal, but the real reason feels quite clear.
Bouchard says the removal of ranking points is behind her decision, although her situation is a lot more understandable.
The 2014 finalist has not played since March last year, meaning she has no world ranking right now. What she does have, though, is protected ranking that she can use to enter tournaments.
She initially planned on using one of those for Wimbledon, but without being able to earn ranking points in return for using it, she has wisely chosen to save them for the US Open and Australian Open instead.
Wimbledon 2022 pic.twitter.com/I4MMGPkfvv
— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) June 17, 2022
“Due to my shoulder surgery I get a limited number of protected ranking (PR) entries,” Bouchard said.
“As much as I love Wimbledon, and skipping it makes me sad, using a PR entry at a tournament with no ranking points doesn’t make sense.
“I must choose wisely and use my PR entries at tournaments that will help me get back to where I want to be.
“I will now use my two Grand Slam PR entries for the US Open and Australian Open.”
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