Elena Rybakina has backed up her previous claims about the new two-week format introduced in Madrid and Rome as the Kazakh pretty directly said that staying for two weeks at these tournaments can become “boring” for players.
While in the midst of a promising Madrid Open run, world No. 4 Rybakina issued some harsh criticism on a two-week format used at the WTA 1000 clay tournaments and she provided a detailed explanation at Caja Magica when making her position clear.
After pretty much saying in Madrid that all of this was uneccessary and that it wasn’t benefiting the players at all, Rybakina was asked at the start of this week’s Rome Open if she sometimes gets the feeling that these two tournaments are “too long.” Answering the question, the 2022 Wimbledon champion was dead honest.
“I would say it’s long because it’s kind of boring to stay also, like you do your routines, then it’s becoming a bit boring to really stay too long in these tournaments. I don’t know,” Rybakina said.
What did Rybakina exactly say in Madrid?
For many years, Indian Wells and Miami have been two-week WTA 1000 tournaments. And just before Rybakina was about to start criticizing introducing a two-week format in Madrid and…
