Coco Gauff has dismissed calls for WTA players to lose rankings points from late withdrawals after the Dubai tournament director endorsed the hypothetical move.<\/p>\n
The comments came after Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from the WTA 1000 event in the United Arab Emirates just one day prior to the draw being made.<\/p>\n
The Pole\u2019s reason for the decision was a supposed \u2018change of schedule\u2019, whilst the Belarusian cited a hip injury \u2013 after having also skipped this week\u2019s action in Doha.<\/p>\n
Salah Tahlak, the Dubai tournament director, labelled the withdrawal an \u2018unfortunate surprise\u2019 and presented the idea that players should be punished via a reduction in their ranking points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a fine will not do anything,\u201d he commented.<\/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.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what is $100,000? She would play someplace else and make $1,000,000. So the fine isn\u2019t a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dubai tournament director calls for \u2018harsher punishment\u2019 after late Sabalenka & Swiatek withdrawals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner hints at on-court changes after \u2018hard to accept\u2019 Djokovic loss, ahead of Doha debut<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Gauff<\/a>, who is the current world No 5, recently made the last eight at the Australian Open \u2013 losing out to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.<\/p>\n The American then fell to world No 57 Elisabetta Cocciaretto in her first match at the Qatar Open.<\/p>\n She will next participate in the WTA 1000 event in Dubai, opening her campaign against either Jelena Ostapenko or Anna Kalinskaya.<\/p>\n No 1 seed and recently-crowned Melbourne champion Elena Rybakina lurks in the semi-finals, whilst second seed Amanda Anisimova the projected opponent in the final.<\/p>\n During her pre-tournament press conference, Gauff pushed back on Tahlak\u2019s idea of a reduction in ranking points for those who withdraw early.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I mean, for me, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever really pulled out of a 1000 that I can remember off the top of my head,\u201d she commented.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely don\u2019t think players do it, like they just don\u2019t want to play. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that decision.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at, like, burnout throughout the year. Although maybe it might not affect you now, it will affect you later.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like for me, this part of the season I have always struggled I think just because of the transition and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Late withdrawals for events may affect the preparation of other players, who might travel based on the entry list, whilst others also may \u2013 instead \u2013 have opted into qualifying for the event.<\/p>\n Players are at risk of sanctions if they skip a mandatory WTA 1000 tournament without a legitimate justification, such as illness or injury.<\/p>\n That said, each player is permitted three schedule-based absences per season, which result in zero ranking points, but do not trigger any financial penalties.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I think players should be docked points? Not really,\u201d the world No 5 argued.<\/p>\n \u201cWe already have the mandatory. We get zeros on our ranking for everything.<\/p>\n \u201cFor this point in the schedule, I think it\u2019s hard to play all the tournaments now that they\u2019re two weeks. I think the ask of players are becoming more and more and more.<\/p>\n \u201cI do understand the tournament side. They obviously want the players there. In the past I think top players have always come to Doha and Dubai.<\/p>\n \u201cThis draw has historically been a tough draw. I understand it\u2019s unfortunate this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair for players to get docked points. I think, if anything, we should have an optional 1000 like the men do with Monte-Carlo.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I think that\u2019s a little bit harsh in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Coco Gauff responds to calls for Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka to be \u2018punished\u2019 after skipping event<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coco Gauff has dismissed calls for WTA players to lose rankings points from late withdrawals after the Dubai tournament director endorsed the hypothetical move. The comments came after Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from the WTA 1000 event in the United Arab Emirates just one day prior to the draw being made. The Pole\u2019s […]<\/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-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765","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=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}