Alternate Daria Kasatkina aims scathing criticism at Barbora Krejcikova's WTA Finals qualification as Wimbledon winner

Daria Kasatkina was well beaten during her one and done at the WTA Finals after entering in as an alternate last minute due to Jessica Pegula's injury. But she wasn't best pleased about Barbora Krejcikova's entry with the Czech ace reaching the semi-finals yesterday.

Krejcikova won Wimbledon so got in through that route despite not finishing inside the top eight of the year end tournament. Had this rule not be in place, Kasatkina would've got into the eight albeit after Emma Navarro who was top alternate but gave away her spot due to injury.

Instead Kasatkina flew to Riyadh to collect over $225,000 in participation fees just for playing one match and a one sided affair. Krejcikova has proven herself though this week. She dumped out Iga Swiatek after seeing off Coco Gauff.

She now faces Aryna Sabalenka for a spot in the final with Zheng Qinwen v Coco Gauff in the other side. But Kasatkina felt aggrieved that a player such as Krejcikova got in despite doing very little else.

"In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race. So it's about the how many points you earn during the year. If you win a Grand Slam, you already got what you achieved," Daria Kasatkina told the National.

"You won the Grand Slam, points, money, glory, everything. Here it's the WTA Race. So I think in this scenario, it has to go by points."

Whether it can be perceived as sour grapes or a valid point, Krejcikova has made sure to show why she got her spot. "Well I was definitely super excited to be here, to come here, to qualify to play against the best ones," Krejcikova said. "I don't really know where everything started to come together. Before the tournament, I had  acouple of days where we hit lightly and already during those hits, I felt quite good. And I think definitely for me, it's a big thing that it's the last tournament of the season."