Karolina Muchova and Paula Badosa on receiving end of rant after China Open doubles withdrawal

Russian doubles player Irina Khromacheva has launched into a rant aimed at Karolina Muchova and Paula Badosa after the duo instantly withdrew from the women's doubles after winning their opening match.

Teaming with Anna Danilina, the pair were beaten by the all singles duo of Muchova and Badosa. But no sooner did the Czech-Spanish pair win did they hand a walkover in the next round to Veronika Kudermetova and Chan Hao-ching.

The two players are still involved in singles and have opted to concentrate on their last 16 matches. But part of Khromacheva's gripe is that singles players often do this. Badosa in particular has often withdrawn from doubles tournaments in similar circumstances this year. While the Russian duo shouldn't have lost on paper, they no doubt felt aggrieved about no rules being in place to stop this happening.

"Bravo WTA. We lost to singles players in doubles in the Beijing tournament,” she wrote on Instagram which was widely published elsewhere.

“And second round they are pulling out cause they don’t care about doubles, but they continue to play singles this week. Completely crazy them taking place of teams who could enter and participate fully.”

“I’ve had this situation twice this year when they won in the first round they pulled out without respect to doubles players," she continued.

“And also for people who are signing on-site trying to get in……very nice rule. Plus tournament losing one match on the schedule. Respect on the WTA tour, didn’t hear it exists... CRAZY.”

Albeit the integrity of the Russian can be brought into attention given that she was suspended for three months and fined more than £2,200 by the ITIA back in 2019 after being found guilty of match fixing.

The 2024 Guadalajara winner accused of offering a player her spot in exchange for cash. She declined to contest the decision so automatically was found guilty.