"It's just tough": Elena Rybakina blames drop in quality on court conditions at 2023 WTA Finals

Elena Rybakina has blamed players' drop in quality at the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun on the court conditions at the Estadio Paradisus.

Rybakina is one of the Top 8 players of the season battling it out at the WTA Finals in Cancun. However, she has also been among the voices condemning the conditions at the venue after construction work remained unfinished until the day before the tournament began.

Cancun was announced as the location of the WTA Finals in September, after which the WTA announced it would spend $6 million on building a new stadium for the prestigious season-ending championships. However, as players arrived, the stadium remained inaccessible for practice, and when it was finally opened many were critical of the court conditions.

According to the Kazakhstani player, this is why the quality of tennis being played at the tournament has been lower than some expected it to be. For example, six sets so far have ended with a 6-0 or a 6-1 scoreline in matches contested by the best players in the world.

"As I said, I think it’s far from being the best tennis. I feel like the quality from all of us is not the greatest. You can see it by the unforced errors. Some players are struggling more. Some are maybe adjusting a bit better … I think the conditions are tough," Rybakina said.

"I don’t feel like I can show everything I have on the court. You’re kind of limited with the things you can do with such conditions. I feel like if you have a tight game on your serve, you can be stressed with a rally when you don’t know how the ball is going to bounce. You don’t know what to expect. Not much is under your control.

"I think this is the main thing and how I see it. If you try to create the rally and try to be aggressive and be dominant in the point, it doesn’t mean you’re going to win it. As I said, I don’t feel like the quality of tennis is really good. But again, I feel it’s not by our problems or like we don’t know how to play. It’s just tough," she continued.

Rybakina lost her first group stage match to Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2, before emerging victorious from a topsy-turvy match against Maria Sakkari, 6-0, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2).