By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday August 13, 2023
An extremely rough and rainy week left Elena Rybakina frustrated in Montreal, the Kazakh finally bowing out of the Omnium Banque Nationale in the semifinals on Saturday in three sets to Liudmila Samsonova, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.
The loss left Rybakina with mixed emotions. If she had won she would have faced a final two hours later against Jessica Pegula, and after a grueling week in Canada that featured a 3 AM finish after a marathon with Daria Kasatkina on Friday night, Rybakina was in no mood for more punishment.
She aired out some hard feelings on Saturday, in her post-match press conference, taking aim at the WTA’s management of the schedule that left her extremely fatigued.
“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,” she said. “I’m not really disappointed so much about the loss because it was kind of expected. 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.”
Rybakina hinted that she’d be happier if the tournament did a better job of protecting players from late finishes.
“I feel destroyed just because of the scheduling and the whole situation,” she said. “I’m not really happy about it, but yeah, it is what it is. Unfortunately, players cannot do much in these situations. The decision is not really ours. Weather was not helpful.
Elena Rybakina calls out WTA leadership for poor scheduling in Kasatkina marathon:
“It’s the 1st time & hopefully the last. I think it’s a bit unprofessional.. Most important is WTA here. Leadership is a bit weak for now. Hopefully something changes.. I fell asleep at 5 a.m.” pic.twitter.com/CpUdkJ86kz
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) August 13, 2023
“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 is 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 struggled physically on Saturday and says that her body will need some time to recover.
“Now I have to see how I feel and evaluate the small injuries which I have now, so we will see. have to be smart in making any decision because US Open is soon.”
