Elena Rybakina said she felt “destroyed” by the National Bank Open schedule and took aim at the WTA’s “weak” leadership after her quarterfinal match ended at 3 a.m. Saturday and her semifinal was postponed to Sunday because of rain.
Rybakina, the No. 3 seed for the Montreal tournament, beat Daria Kasatkina in a marathon quarterfinal that lasted 3 hours and 27 minutes, before rain forced her to wait until the final day of the tournament to meet Liudmila Samsonova in the next round.
Rybakina went on to lose 6-1, 1-6, 2-6 to Samsonova, who turned up again about two hours later for the final and was defeated by Jessica Pegula.
“I feel destroyed because of the scheduling and the whole situation. I’m not really happy about it, but it is what it is,” Rybakina, who had her right shoulder strapped, told reporters Sunday. “Unfortunately, players can’t do much in these situations. The decision isn’t really ours. The weather wasn’t helpful. So I picked up some injuries, but we tried to manage it and see how we’ll go from that.”
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, said the Montreal quarterfinal was the first time she had played so late.
“Hopefully it’s the last time, because it’s been a bit unprofessional from the — I can’t say really the tournament, because I think that the most important is the WTA here,” Rybakina said. “Leadership a little bit weak for now, but hopefully something is going to change, because this year it was many situations which I can’t really understand.”
Rybakina said she was not sure if she would tweak her schedule ahead of the US Open, which starts on Aug. 28.
“I have to see how I feel and evaluate the small injuries which I have now,” she said. “I have to be smart in making any decision.”
Reuters contributed to this report.