"Stop blaming players for mistakes made by the system itself”: Rybakina’s coach seriously criticizes use of performance byes system

Tuesday, 26 September 2023 at 09:37

World number five Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina’s coach Stefano Vukov has expressed his disappointment about the use of the Performance Byes system in the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

The mega-event is currently taking place in the capital of Japan where for the first time, the Performance Byes system was used for the main draw.

The new system takes into account recent performances of players instead of the seeding system used before.

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It was because of this reason Rybakina, despite seeding higher than the likes of Greece’s Maria Sakkari and France’s Caroline Garcia, was due to play in the first round of the tournament.

Interestingly, Rybakina withdrew from the competition on the morning of the first day of the tournament.

Her coach Vukov, in a long post on the social media platform Instagram, criticised the introduction of the Performance Byes system.

“Just to make things clear, there is no explanation of what a performance bye is. What does this mean? Do we add byes to help performing players? Or do we take away ranking earned byes? And isn't ranking itself a sign of performance?,” he wrote.

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“Last year we came from a final in Europe and played in Japan 2 days later and performance byes nowhere to be found. The issue is always the same lack of communication. This will also apply from Tokyo 500 to Beijing 1000 next week.

“4 performance byes will be awarded. Most players have already qualified for the final 8, so for what reason should they even compete before Cancun. The reason is that most tournaments are mandatory, and fines are given out to players if you don’t compete in them. Players always pay the consequences.

“The system doesn't work. The marketing is terrible as you can all see Elena qualified weeks ago, and just yesterday WTA decided to post something. We need transparency. All players need to understand what is going on. Stop blaming players for mistakes made by the system itself.”

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Azeem Siddiqui

Azeem Siddiqui is a seasoned sports journalist and data analyst with a strong background in both digital media and live sports production.

He began his journalism career working with partners of The New York Times and has since contributed to several leading international sports publications, including Fox Sports Asia, Calciomercato, and GiveMeSport. Since 2023, Azeem has been part of the TennisUpToDate team, where he has played a key role in sustaining the platform’s growth and ensuring tennis fans receive timely and reliable coverage of the sport’s biggest stories.

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