The Cancun event in a facility completed within hours of the event. Sabalenka: “I don’t feel safe, no respect for us”
The WTA Finals have begun, but we care little or nothing about the results of the first two matches. This is because the protagonists themselves, instead of talking about tennis or their challenges, talk about something completely different, with terrible attacks on the WTA itself, guilty of total disorganisation, with such an important event set up in Cancun in a hurry, with a court which first had to be indoors and then built outdoors and completed a few hours before the start of the tournament. A field, among other things, with 4000 seats (very few for an event of this kind, but despite everything the stands are far from full, we are talking about 40% capacity), very irregular, with bounces that are not precisely ideal and with the players (we are talking about the best 8 in the world) who were able to try out the facility for 45 minutes each before playing the official matches.
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The number one in the ranking, Aryna Sabalenka, after the victory against the Greek Maria Sakkari (6-0 6-1 in one hour and sixteen for the Belarusian), in a press conference furiously attacked the WTA and the CEO Steve Simon, one of the main responsible for the disaster, in a way that has rarely been seen from a player of her caliber. “I have to say that I’m really disappointed so far with the WTA and my experience at the Finals. I really feel disrespected by the association. I think many of us feel this way. This is not the level of organization we expect from the Finals. To be honest, I don’t feel safe moving on the court most of the time: the bounce is not smooth and we haven’t been able to practice on this court until yesterday. It’s not at all acceptable to me with everything this tournament is worth and how much is at stake,” said the world number one. She’s not the only one, of course. All her colleagues talk about an absurd situation, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina made it clear that she did not have any positive feelings about adapting so quickly to the conditions different from the training fields and in fact she lost the first match of the tournament against Jessica Pegula 7-5 6-2 in an hour and 25 minutes of play, almost laughing during the match at the situation that could easily be defined as surreal. And how can you blame her, after all.
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