"WTA leadership is a little bit weak": Rybakina laments scheduling woes at Canadian Open, slams WTA over handling of situation

Tuesday, 15 August 2023 at 06:33

Elena Rybakina said she felt 'destroyed' and lamented scheduling issues after losing out to Liudmila Samsonova in the semi-finals of the Canadian Open.

An ongoing theme all week including for Samsonova too was rain delays seeing minimal recovery time and players feeling fatigued and injured.

Iga Swiatek also spoke out on it and for Rybakina, it wasn't a ringing endorsement of the tournament or WTA.

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“Yeah, definitely I feel destroyed just because of the scheduling and the whole situation. I'm not really happy about it, but yeah, it is what it is,” the Kazakh said.

“Unfortunately, players cannot do much in these situations. The decision is not really ours. Weather was not helpful. So I picked up some injuries I would say, but we tried to manage it and see how we will go from that.”

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Earlier this week, she also played Sloane Stephens late and Daria Kasatkina till 3am and said the WTA has 'weak leadership'.

“It's the first time when the match went I think that long, and we finished also so late,” she added.

“It's the first time and hopefully the last time because I think it's been a little bit unprofessional from the - I cannot say really the tournament because I think that the most important is the WTA here. Leadership a little bit weak for now, but hopefully something is going to change because this year it was many situations which I cannot really understand.”

Rybakina was then set to return just 15 hours later and said she barely slept. "Well, we finished at 3. Well, I showered, did some stretching a little bit, went back to the hotel. I think I fell asleep at 5. Yeah, I mean, I woke up at 10, and then it was impossible to sleep. So, yeah, it definitely was not enough time to recover.”

But she said that the issue ultimately is that with the gap in between being so short with Cincinnati and then the US Open a short time later that recovery is non existent.

“The worst thing is that it's not about this tournament. It's going to be not easy to recover for the next two weeks,” Rybakina continued.

“I'm more disappointed, again, about just the whole situation. As I said, it's not the first time with the players affected a lot.”

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But Cincinnati could be the one to fall off the schedule for Rybakina who hinted that she will need to evaluate her situation with the US Open on the horizon.

“It's tough to say. Now I have to see how I feel and evaluate the small injuries which I have now, so we will see. Yeah, I have to be smart in making any decision because US Open is soon."

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Elena Rybakina feels ‘destroyed’ after Montreal scheduling: “I feel destroyed bc of the scheduling & the whole situation. I’m not really happy about it but it is what it is.. players can’t do much in these situations. The weather wasn’t helpful. I picked up some injuries..”

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11:21 PM · Aug 13, 2023

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