Iga Swiatek acknowledges the WTA cannot impact the weather conditions during tournaments but added they “should focus more on what’s healthy for players” following the Elena Rybakina criticism. Due to rain delays and scheduling, Rybakina finished her Montreal quarterfinal match against Daria Kasatkina around 3 am on Saturday morning.
Due to rain, Rybakina didn’t get to play her Montreal semifinal on Saturday. After getting to the court on Sunday and losing to Liudmila Samsonova, Rybakina called the WTA leadership “weak.” Also, Rybakina claimed she “picked up some injuries” and felt “destroyed” after finishing at 3 am and going to sleep at 5 am.
Swiatek on Rybakina criticizing the WTA
“For sure, weather is something we can’t really predict, but maybe we should focus more on what is healthy for players because we have to compete every week. The tour is so intense with travel and not actually having two days of calm and not working that it would be nice in the future to focus on players, especially next year when there will be more and more mandatory tournaments and longer tournaments,” Swiatek said in Cincinnati, via tennis.com.Swiatek, who also had some late finishes during clay WTA 1000 tournaments in Madrid and Rome, reveals she asked the WTA to see how many people actually watch tennis matches that start past 10 pm.
