- Elena Rybakina issued a fresh statement
- She withdrew from WTA 500 Tokyo Open
- She had previously expressed dissatisfaction with WTA’s decision
Elena Rybakina issued a fresh statement after her withdrawal from the WTA 500 event in Tokyo Open.
Ranked as the world No. 5, she had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the WTA’s decision to grant performance byes in the tournament, which meant she didn’t receive an automatic pass to the second round.
Despite rumours suggesting her withdrawal was connected to this issue, Rybakina emphatically dismissed such speculation.
However, she reiterated her ongoing “concerns” regarding the policies of the WTA. Following her withdrawal from the Toray Pan Pacific Open minutes before her scheduled first-round match, Rybakina addressed her position on Monday.
She had already stirred up controversy as the third seed when she publicly criticized the WTA for giving performance byes to athletes who had advanced far in the Guadalajara tournament the week before.
Elena Rybakina. Photo/ Sky Sports.
When the 24-year-old announced her withdrawal, the competition acknowledged that she was putting her “health and fitness” first.
However, there was still an online rumour that she chose not to participate due to her thoughts regarding the lack of a customary bye into the second round.
Rybakina posted a message on Instagram explaining why she skipped the competition. She says that her decision was purely driven by the need to let her body relax.
“As a player I want to give my all on the court and at the moment my body is not ready to do that,” read part of her post
“That’s why I decided to listen to my body and withdraw from the tournament. I love Japan, my fans here are so unique and for that reason this is a tough decision.”
Nevertheless, the Wimbledon champion still maintains that she has strong opinions about the WTA.
However, she said she would address her concerns later. The top two seeds were awarded a bye to the second round of the Tokyo tournament as soon as the draw was made.
But Caroline Garcia and Maria Sakkari were given byes based on their results in Guadalajara the previous week, where they advanced to the semifinals and won the tournament, respectively.
Elena Rybakina beat Pegula on Thursday night. Photo/ Tennis World.
Rybakina has criticized the WTA before. And since she had to play her quarterfinal match till three in the morning, she was very loud during the Canadian Open.
Rain forced the postponement of her semi-final match, which was subsequently moved to the finals day.
She fell to Liudmila Samsonova there, and the Russian had to play Jessica Pegula in the championship match with only a few hours of recuperation between matches.
Rybakina lost 6-1, 6-0. She called out the WTA stating that it was unprofessional for them to play at 3 am which exposes cracks in its leadership.
“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. Leadership 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,” she said.
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