Daria Kasatkina blasts WTA over scheduling after reaching Abu Dhabi final
Daria Kasatkina challenged the WTA and organisers of tournaments over what she called “terrible scheduling” after she clinched her spot in the Abu Dhabi Open final.
In addition to competing against top-seeded Elena Rybakina in the championship match on Sunday, Kasatkina is scheduled to play fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the Qatar Open first round the following day in Doha.
Kasatkina called the scenario “unfair” to the players and mentioned that there may be a higher chance of injury as a result.
“It’s terrible scheduling, honestly,” said Kasatkina, who reached her second final of the season thanks to her win over Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.
“I don’t know how you can schedule the finals of the tournament on Sunday, wanting to finish the next tournament on Saturday, so you start it on Sunday, and like this, the player, if like me, you don’t have a bye in Doha, I have to play on Monday. And I play finals tomorrow at 5 pm.
“We don’t have yet this technology that I can just do like this (snaps her fingers) and be in Doha in five seconds.”
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Kasatkina has asked the circuit and event organisers to think about modifying the itinerary going ahead since she is uncertain if she will be able to catch a flight on Sunday night from Abu Dhabi to Doha.
“I have a question, I don’t know to who, to WTA or the tournaments, like, are you guys trying to make players die, or to get injured often?” asked Kasatkina.
“I might have to fly Monday and step on the court the same day, after playing five matches here at the highest level. So I’m sorry but that’s something we have to talk about and consider.”
With the Qatar Open first-round byes already established and no possibility of a performance bye being added for her, Kasatkina, who will be playing for her seventh career championship on Sunday—her first since 2022—acknowledges that nothing can seemingly be done about this year’s scheduling.
“We’re players, we’re humans and we’re trying to do our job the best we can. But under the circumstances it’s not very easy,” added the 26-year-old.
“I hope this question will be addressed to the right people. And I’m not crying, I’m just saying the facts and the facts are saying that it’s impossible, it cannot be like that.”
Since Rybakina is seeded eighth in Doha and has a first-round bye, she won’t have to deal with the same scheduling conflict that Kasatkina faces.
Rybakina expects a tough match against Kasatkina and one very different from her semi-final win over Liudmila Samsonova.
“It was a really tough battle and I’m really happy that I managed to win in the end. I started pretty well the match, a few shots went my way, but in the second set my focus went a little down,” said Rybakina.
“It’s going to be a very tough match against Kasatkina. A completely different style of the game. I have to have really good footwork and play aggressively.”
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