Salas criticises Tursunov's comments on women's tennis: "These statements only do harm"

Valencia Open tournament director Ana Salas criticized Dmitry Tursunov for some interesting comments he made recently.

The former Russian player emerged as one of the top coaches in the past year or two guiding several players some dramatic improvements. Anett Kontaveit went from a player struggling to stay in the top 30 to being ranked number two under his guidance and that earned him a chance to coach Raducanu.

It didn't go so well as he and Raducanu parted ways after a while with his next job coming fairly soon after that. He's currently the coach of Belinda Bencic who recently lead Switzerland to the Billie Jean King Cup trophy.

Tursunov himself is catching some heat for some comments lately with Valencia Open tournament director Salas not appreciative of his claim that some WTA players don't put much effort during matches. She said:

"I do not agree at all, in men, there are also players who do not give 100% or players who make many mistakes. It is true that the current trend is to hit from behind with flat shots, although profiles like Swiatek help to change it."

She added:

"These statements only harm women's tennis or coaches who on social networks assure that women's tennis has no interest. Why do you say this? It doesn't have it for you, but for many people it does, what we have to do is unite it and strengthen it."