The Dubai Tennis Championships tournament director has claimed that players should be docked ranking points for late withdrawals from an event, following Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek\u2019s decision to miss the second WTA 1000 event of 2026.<\/p>\n
World No 1 Sabalenka and world No 2 Swiatek both confirmed on Friday that they would not be in action in Dubai<\/a>, with their withdrawals coming just one day before the draw was made, and two days before the start of the tournament.<\/p>\n Four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka\u2019s<\/a> withdrawal reason was cited as a hip injury, with the Belarusian also not in action at the Qatar Open this week.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, six-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek<\/a> has withdrawn due to a change of schedule, coming after her quarter-final defeat to Maria Sakkari in Doha<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both Sabalenka and Swiatek have previously suggested that they would skip a handful of WTA 1000 events in 2026, with several players across both the women\u2019s and men\u2019s game critical of the tennis calendar.<\/p>\n Leading WTA players are expected to contest all 10 WTA 1000 events on the calendar, alongside the four Grand Slam tournaments, and six WTA 500-level events.<\/p>\n The official WTA Rulebook claims that players can face fines should they withdraw from mandatory events, while players are often awarded \u2018zero-pointers\u2019 on their WTA ranking if they do not fulfil mandatory requirements.<\/p>\n In quotes reported by The National<\/em><\/a>, Dubai tournament director Salah Tahlak has called into question whether the current rules go far enough to prevent late withdrawals.<\/p>\n Karolina Muchova hails Victoria Mboko\u2019s \u2018incredible week\u2019 after Qatar Open run<\/a><\/p>\n Karolina Muchova and Victoria Mboko\u2019s prize money and ranking points from Qatar Open<\/a><\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt was an unfortunate surprise [on Friday] to get news of the withdrawal of Aryna and Iga. And the reasons for withdrawal were a bit strange.<\/p>\n \u201cIga said she wasn\u2019t mentally ready to compete, while Sabalenka said she has some minor injuries.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t know. I think there should be a harsher punishment on the players [for withdrawing], not just fines, they should be docked ranking points.<\/p>\n \u201cI even asked the [tournament] doctor: \u2018What is the injury?\u2019 He said it\u2019s a minor injury, not one that would force her to withdraw from the tournament. And for Iga, I asked: \u2018Isn\u2019t this a strange decision?’\u201d<\/p>\n Fines have been issued in the past, but with the leading players in the sport regularly making millions of dollars in prize money each season, Tahlak has suggested that ranking points penalties would provide a more significant deterrent.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a fine will not do anything,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel they should deduct points from the players. A monetary fine won\u2019t help. Many years ago, Serena Williams withdrew and was fined $100,000. But what is $100,000? She would play someplace else and make $1,000,000. So the fine isn\u2019t a big deal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a meeting coming up in Rome, and I want to shed light on this issue. We have a representative on behalf of the international group [of tournaments] to speak for us with the WTA.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s a shame that we\u2019re spending these huge amounts to upgrade our facilities, and in the end, the players are the main part.\u201d<\/p>\n In the absence of both Sabalenka and Swiatek, world No 1 and Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina is the top seed in the draw, with world No 4 Amanda Anisimova seeded second.<\/p>\n Sabalenka and Swiatek are both likely to return to action in Indian Wells, the third WTA 1000 tournament of the year.<\/p>\n Action in Tennis Paradise begins in early March, with Sabalenka a two-time finalist at the event, and Swiatek being a two-time former champion.<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: WTA Dubai draw: Rybakina No 1 seed, Gauff, Raducanu, Eala all in top half<\/a><\/p>\n The post Dubai tournament director calls for \u2018harsher punishment\u2019 after late Sabalenka & Swiatek withdrawals<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Dubai Tennis Championships tournament director has claimed that players should be docked ranking points for late withdrawals from an event, following Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek\u2019s decision to miss the second WTA 1000 event of 2026. World No 1 Sabalenka and world No 2 Swiatek both confirmed on Friday that they would not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n