Daria Kasatkina blasted the rule that allowed Barbora Krejcikova to make the WTA Finals without finishing in the top-8 in the Race.
Although the Czech finished 12th on the Race to Riyadh, she still made the season-ending tournament. If you wonder why, the world No. 13 won Wimbledon and also finished between 9-20.
As a result, Emma Navarro – who finished eighth in the Race and had around 700 points more than Krejcikova – didn’t make the Finals and declined to go to Riyadh as an alternate.
After Jessica Pegula withdrew from her last group-stage match, Kasatkina jumped in as an alternate and lost 1-6 0-6 to Iga Swiatek on Thursday.
“In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race. So it’s about how many points you earn during the year. If you win a Grand Slam, you already got what you achieved. You won the Grand Slam, points, money, glory, everything. Here it’s the WTA Race. So I think in this scenario, it has to go by points,” the Russian tennis star said afterward.
Daria Kasatkina© Daria Kasatkina/Instagram – Fair Use
Kasatkina lost to Swiatek, while Krejcikova qualified
By beating the ninth-ranked Russian, the Pole improved to 2-1. But after the reigning Wimbledon champion defeated Coco Gauff, Swiatek was dumped out of Riyadh while the Czech and the American progressed into the semifinal with their 2-1 records.
For Krejcikova, it was the first time that she made the knockout stage at the WTA Finals.
“Well I was definitely super excited to be here, to come here, to qualify to play against the best ones. I don’t really know where everything started to come together. Before the tournament, I had a couple of days where we hit lightly and already during those hits, I felt quite good. And I think definitely for me, it’s a big thing that it’s the last tournament of the season,” the 28-year-old Czech said after booking a semifinal matchup with Zheng Qinwen.