Elena Rybakina throws up the ball, but the wind has a mind of its own. Elena smiles. The crowd cheers for her & tries to give her support. Trying to make the best of a tough situation, but she hits a double fault. These conditions are dreadful.
(VIDEO) Elena Rybakina suffers tennis ball mishap as "dreadful" conditions continue at 2023 WTA Finals
WTAFriday, 03 November 2023 at 15:04
Elena Rybakina suffered a mishap with a tennis ball while attempting to serve in her match at the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun, re-igniting complaints about the venue's "dreadful" conditions.
The World No. 4 was nearing the end of the first set in her match against Aryna Sabalenka at the 2023 WTA Finals when the incident occurred. Rybakina was trailing 1-5 but was attempting to at least make her opponent serve for the set as she aimed to avoid a triple break.
However, while leading 30-15 in the game, the Kazakhstani player's serve was de-railed by the wind, forcing her to start the point again. While Rybakina was able to laugh it off in the moment, many fans were quick to point out how this was another example of the difficult conditions in which the athletes are playing.
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Tough court conditions continue
Cancun was announced as the location for the WTA Finals in September, after which the WTA announced that it would spend $6 million on building a new stadium for the prestigious season-ending championships.
However, problems became clear when players started arriving at the venue only to find that construction work was still ongoing, and they were ultimately unable to access the Estadio Paradisus until the day before the tournament began.
Once the group stage got underway, players were vocal about the difficulty of dealing with the court conditions. Indeed, Rybakina put the drop in quality at the event down to players attempting to adjust to the courts.
"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.
"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," she said.
Following the tennis ball mishap, Rybakina hit a double fault but managed to hold. Although she lost the opener 6-2, she was leading 5-3 in the second set when the match was suspended due to rain, with play scheduled to resume later today.
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