Elena Rybakina's coach rips WTA and defends the players



by LORENZO CIOTTI

Elena Rybakina's coach rips WTA and defends the players
Elena Rybakina's coach rips WTA and defends the players © Mike Stobe / Stringer Getty Images Sport

The coach of former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina released harsh words against the WTA and, at the same time, defended the players of the women's tennis association. This happened after the controversy continued over the situation that arose before the start of the WTA in Tokyo, relating to the byes.

When the main draw was published, Elena Rybakina, who then withdrew from the tournament, lost the chance to skip the first round against Maria Sakkari and Caroline Garcia, who reached at least as far as the semi-finals in the previous tournament in Guadalajara.

The Kazakh tennis player protested the rule, however leaving the scene announcing her withdrawal due to a physical condition that was not yet 100%.ù

Elena Rybakina's coach rips WTA!

The coach of the Wimbledon winner, Stefano Vukov, also intervened on the issue through a message on social media.

He explained: “Just to be clear, there is no explanation of what a performance bye is. What does this mean? Do we add byes to help players perform? Or do we remove the ranking gained from byes? And the ranking itself is not a sign of performance?

Last year we came from a final in Europe and played in Japan 2 days later and the byes were nowhere to be found.

The problem is still the same lack of communication. This will also apply in the WTA 1000 in Beijing next week.

The reason is that most tournaments are mandatory and players are given fines if they don't participate. It's always the athletes who pay the consequences.

The system doesn't work. The marketing is terrible, as you can all see. We need of transparency. All players must understand what is happening. Stop blaming tennis players for the mistakes made by the system itself." Elena Rybakina explained in the press release: "I'm really sorry to have to withdraw from Tokyo this year.

I was really looking forward to the event and I love the city. I need to prioritize my health and fitness and need time to get to 100% health."

Elena Rybakina