Petra Kvitova expressed her frustration with the scheduling of the WTA 1000 China Open and received support from her fans.
The 33-year-old Czech tennis player was eliminated in the second round of the season's final WTA 1000 event, facing Ludmila Samsonova on the second day of the China Open. Despite being the 12th seed, she managed to defeat local player Wang Xinyu in the first round, but had little time to recover before her match against the Russian Samsonova, playing less than 24 hours after her initial match.
Kvitova didn't appear to be in good physical condition and ended up losing with a score of 6-4, 7-5. Subsequently, she expressed her disappointment on social media regarding the scheduling of her matches:
“Far from ideal to finish my match at the @ChinaOpen at 1am and then be back on the schedule at NB 5:30pm the next day when some first round matches had yet to be played. I have always played the sport with huge respect and rarely speak out, but this time I feel strongly…” she wrote on social media.
“Enough to say that there *has* to have been a fairer option. Please do better for your players @WTA,” Kvitova added two hours later
Fans quickly responded to Kvitova's words on social media and showed their support for the 2-time Wimbledon champion:
"If Petra Kvitova publicly criticises something, unfortunately you messed up really bad," a fan said.
“Petra is one of the people who NEVER complains. This was truly horrible from WTA and China Open”
“Well said, my dear Petra Kvitova, nothing is fair and there must be someone from the wta who takes care of the programming and takes care of them so as not to get injured by not giving the necessary rest and being at 100% and it was very unpleasant that you played so soon and...”
Here are some other reactions from fans: