Ons Jabeur has sided with Elena Rybakina as the three-time Grand Slam finalist also finds performance byes as “really confusing.” After Rybakina ripped the WTA and its performance byes rule in Tokyo, questions about the rule have been raised during the ongoing WTA 1000 event in Beijing.
Jabeur, who won a WTA 250 event in Ningbo last week, came to Beijing thinking she would be rewarded with a first-round bye – but she wasn’t. “Yeah, the rules about the performance bye are really, really confusing. For me, I wish I had a performance bye from Ningbo.
If it’s allowed to give from 500 to 1000, then it’s allowed to give from a 250 to a 1000. I think the schedule should be better. We shouldn’t have a tournament in Mexico, then Tokyo, then Tokyo to here. At least Tokyo to here is better.
Yeah, I feel like if they’re going to do performance byes, they should keep normal byes maybe, yeah, and explain better the rules for sure. I think we didn’t have any explanation on that. For me, honestly I thought I had a bye in Ningbo to start with and I didn’t.
Yeah, it is frustrating. I do understand the point of Elena, and hopefully we can find a solution about it with the WTA and avoid this happening. Definitely clear the rules once for all,” Jabeur said.
Jabeur agrees with Rybakina that performance byes are ‘frustrating’
The performance bye rule is meant to reward players who did well in the previous week.
After Jabeur won a WTA 250 event in Ningbo last week, she thought she would be rewarded with a first-round bye in Beijing. But after the draw was made, Jabeur learned she would be starting her campaign from the first round.
In the Beijing first round, Jabeur defeated Ashlyn Krueger 6-3 6-4 before Marta Kostyuk handed the Tunisian a 7-6 (5) 6-1 loss in the second round.
