Suffering Transylvania Open director urges change after Garcia and Vekic withdraw

Transylvania Open’s tournament director Patrick Ciorcila called out the last-minute withdrawals of the biggest names announced for the WTA250 tournament he manages. “I am honored that it’s the third edition of Transylvania Open,” Patrick Ciorcilă began as quoted in an official press release.

“Few people know that this edition has been a real struggle – we were very close to not having this license. We have had many withdrawals, and I don’t want to ignore that, especially since there have been many last-minute withdrawals.

But we, as organizers, were also upset, and we wanted to have the best possible lineup. We have always been transparent and communicated exactly which players we knew would come; and we’ve talked a lot with them, from Caroline Garcia to Donna Vekic.

It’s the end of the year, and it’s understandable on one hand that many have withdrawn, but I believe that certain things should change for organizers so that we don’t suffer in terms of our image after communicating with many top players (who then can’t participate),” said Ciorcila.