Jessica Pegula rips Madrid organizers over women's doubles final controversy

• Tennis News
• Tennis Stories

Jessica Pegula said she had a feeling something would happen during the Madrid Open women's doubles final but noted she never thought the participants would be forcefully silenced. After Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia defeated Pegula and Cori Gauff in the Madrid doubles final, the two teams weren't given a chance to conduct the usual on-court speech.

On Friday, Azarenka called out the Madrid Open while weighing in on the Aryna Sabalenka cake case. The next day, Iga Swiatek hit out at the Madrid organizers over their scheduling. Many suspect that the Madrid organizers feared more criticism would come after the Madrid women's doubles final.

Pegula.rips the Madrid organizers

“What happened in Madrid, it was really disappointing. I know a lot of like what happened, detail leading up to the event, just because Vika and I are on players’ council. I had a feeling something was going to happen.

Did I think we were not going to be able to speak, no. I’ve never heard of that, like, in my life. Even in a 10K Challenger final you would speak. I don’t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision or how they actually had a conversation and decided, like, ‘Wow, this is a great decision we’re going to do and there’s going to be no backlash against this,'" Pegula said, per Tennis Majors.

Also, Pegula added the actions of the Madrid organizers prove that the claims of WTA players are justified. “To be honest, it kind of spoke for itself. We were upset when it happened, especially being told during the trophy ceremony we weren’t going to be allowed to speak.

We were kind of like, Well, I guess this just kind of proves a point. We didn’t really do anything, and here we are. It kind of speaks for itself," Pegula added.