That’s like saying you’re lucky to eat at the adult table. The wta leadership is and has been failing. If Nadal or Federer were forced to play on a makeshift amateur court without practice they would be heard and NOT blamed for the terrible disaster of the tour.
"The WTA leadership is failing": Fans criticize journalist Ben Rothenberg for defending 2023 WTA Finals conditions
WTAFriday, 03 November 2023 at 15:00
The 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun have caused a lot of controversy and received a large amount of criticism over the last week, leading many to call out Ben Rothenberg after he said players shouldn't complain about the venue's tough conditions.
Cancun was announced as the location of the 2023 WTA Finals in September, after which the WTA revealed that it would spend $6 million on building a new stadium to host the season's Top 8 players as they battle it out for the prestigious title.
However, construction work remained unfinished until the day before the event began, with players sharing two hotel practice courts between them before this. Moreover, once they were able to access the Estadio Paradisus, the conditions of the court made it difficult to play on and several players, including Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, spoke out about the conditions.
Rothenberg criticized for blaming players
However, tennis journalist Rothenberg took to social media to agree with a statement saying that the players' complaints were "not helping."
"I completely agree with this. Player complaints around Cancun are definitely hurting the event's chances of finding its footing through its challenges, and undermine the WTA in a way that isn't helpful to women's tennis, even if WTA was to blame for Cancun's hasty timetable," he wrote on X.
This post received a lot of criticism from fans who defended the players' right to complain about unsafe and unfair conditions.
"It's the biggest WTA event of the year. The court is barely playable, the stadium is barely standing and the organization/planning leading up to the event was laughable, but the players should just shut up and play? Right," wrote one fan.
"Why shouldn’t they complain like f**k that they’ve been screwed over the last three years with these finals, it won’t find it’s footing regardless so they have every right to call the WTA out," added another.
Meanwhile, others stated their belief that if it was Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal complaining then more would be done to resolve the issue, while another fan accused Rothenberg of sexism.
"That’s like saying you’re lucky to eat at the adult table. The wta leadership is and has been failing. If Nadal or Federer were forced to play on a makeshift amateur court without practice they would be heard and NOT blamed for the terrible disaster of the tour," one wrote.
"Being told to put up and shut up by men is the very essence of being a woman in any walk of life, sadly," another commented.
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