Petra Kvitova has become the latest player to hit out at the scheduling at the China Open. The world No 14 crashed out in the second round after having 16 hours to recover in between her two matches. It comes after Alexander Zverev blasted the tournament when he finished playing just before 3am. And Kvitova dragged the WTA into her rant – the second time the women’s tour has come under fire this week.
Kvitova was left frustrated after she crashed out of the China Open with a 6-4 7-5 defeat to Liudmila Samsonova. The Czech star had minimal turnaround time after beating Wang Xiyu shortly before 1am in the early hours of Monday.
The 12th seed came from a set down to defeat the Chinese wildcard in three sets over the course of three hours and five minutes. Despite walking off court in the middle of the night, Kvitova was scheduled to take to the court not before 5:30pm – around 16 hours after she stepped off it.
After she was ousted by the world No 22 in 95 minutes, Kvitova took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share her frustration about the scheduling. “Far from ideal to finish my match at the @ChinaOpen at 1am and then be back on the schedule at NB 5:30pm the next day when some first round matches had yet to be played,” the two-time Wimbledon champion wrote.
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Kvitova – who doesn’t usually speak out against the WTA – also called on the women’s tour to do better. She added: “I have always played the sport with huge respect and rarely speak out, but this time I feel strongly enough to say that there *has* to have been a fairer option. Please do better for your players @WTA.”
It’s not the first time a player has taken issue with the late finishes and the scheduling in Beijing. During the ATP 500 event being held simultaneously, Zverev and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had to take to the court after midnight for their round-of-16 clash.
The match ended shortly before 3am with the eighth seed coming through in three sets. And Zverev took aim at the decision to make them wait until the early hours of the morning to take to the court. “Obviously, it’s difficult to play til 3am. I’m not sure it was the right call to keep us on this court. I think we should’ve changed courts,” he claimed.
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“We should’ve gone on. There’s so many great courts on the stadium. So many opportunities where we could’ve played. I’m not sure we should’ve waited til past midnight to start the match, to be honest.”
Kvitova also isn’t the first player to take aim at the WTA this week as the women’s tour caused controversy for another decision. They recently reintroduced performance byes, meaning players who reached the semi-final of a tournament the week before can get a free pass into the second round of the next event.
It means that those who usually get a bye into round two based on their rankings have ended up playing in the first round – including Aryna Sabalenka. The world No 1 said she didn’t agree with the rule, explaining: “I’m happy for the players who made it, but I think this is not acceptable. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen again later.”
2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina also slammed the women’s tennis tour when performance byes were used in Tokyo last week for players who had gone deep in Guadalajara. The 24-year-old took to Instagram to share her frustration. Alongside a clown emoji, she wrote: “Performance bye. Thank you for changing the rules last moment. Great decisions as always @wta.”
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