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Elena Rybakina's coach Sefano Vukov has criticized the WTA in the wake of the Kazakh player's withdrawal from the 2023 Japan Open.
Rybakina declared on Sunday (September 24) that she would not be competing in the Japan Open due to health concerns. That came a day after she criticized the WTA over the awarding of performance byes to players ranked lower than her.
Elena Rybakina's coach, Stefano Vukov, has now spoken out against the WTA after her withdrawal. The Croat said he did not understand the concept of a performance bye and questioned whether or not the players' rankings were a reflection of their performance.
"Just to make things clear, there is no explanation of what a performance bye is." Vukov wrote. "What does this mean? Do we add byes to help performing players? Or do we take away ranking earned byes? And isn’t ranking itself a sign of performance?"
Vukov also highlighted the incidents from last year, when, without performance byes, Rybakina had to play the first round of the Japan Open just two days after playing the final of the Portoroz Open.
Vukov is also miffed by the lack of communication that has reportedly been causing problems for the players.
"Last year we came from a final in Europe and played in Japan 2 days later and performance byes were nowhere to be found," he wrote. "The issue is always the same of communication. This will also apply from Tokyo 500 to Beijing 1000 next week. 4 performance byes will be awarded."
"Most players have already qualified for the final 8, so far what reason should they even compete before Cancun. The reason is that most tournaments are mandatory, and fines are given out to players in't cf you doompete in them. Players always pay the consequences. The system doesn't work," Vukov added.
Vukov sought greater transparency from the WTA and tagged PTPA, a group created by Novak Djokovic and Vasel Pospisil, in his post.
"The marketing is terrible as you can all see Elena qualified weeks ago, and just yesterday @wta decided to post something. We need transparency. All players need to understand what is going on. Stop blaming players for mistakes by the system itself. @ptpaplayers," he concluded.
In response, several fans took to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the WTA. One of them brought up what Novak Djokovic has been saying about the WTA and ATP since the pandemic.
“That's what djokovic was trying to say since the pandemic in 2020 Every player should join the PTPA ... because ATP and WTA aren't working for players any more ... they are working for the money and we should thank rybakina and her team for speaking against the establishment”, they said.
Another user praised the PTPA, saying:
“@ptpaplayers becoming stronger with each day."
One fan seemed happy at how the PTPA was being highlighted to address the issue.
“Glad to see @ptpaplayers is tagged on this, since they are there to look out for PLAYERS alone. No conflicts of interest," the fan tweeted.
Here are a few more reactions:
Elena Rynbakina says she wants to prioritize her health
Elena Rybakina recently explained her Japan Open withdrawal, saying she wanted to prioritize her health. She also said she would communicate her complaints to the WTA in time.
Elena Rybakina was set to play her first-round match against Linda Nosokova. However, problems began before the players even arrived on the court.
The Kazakh was deprived of a ranking bye in order to accomodate Maria Sakkari under performance bye. This angered Elena Rybakina enough to publicly denounce the WTA.
“As a player I want to give my all on the court and at the moment my body is not ready to do that," Elena Rybakina wrote in an Instagram post. "That’s why I decided to listen to my body and withdraw from the tournament. I love Japan, my fans here are so unique and for that reason this is a tough decision. The WTA topic is another topic, on which I have my opinions and will clearly voice them in future. To my fans, thank you for your support, I appreciate it very much."
