World No. 5 Elena Rybakina confirmed her late withdrawal from the Japan Open was because she was listening to her body, presumably citing a niggling injury.
The news obviously comes just days after Rybakina hit out at the WTA for being snubbed a bye in the first round of the WTA 500 event in Tokyo. As is customary, the top four seeds are given a free pass into the second round and their campaign would start at least two days late from the opening matches.
That didn't happen, as the WTA decided to trial performance byes which were handed to Maria Sakkari and Caroline Garcia, seeded fourth and fifth respectively. These were meant to give the two players who competed in at last week's Guadalajara Open sufficient recovery and travel time to Tokyo.
It came at the expense of Rybakina, who was the third seed at the tournament, until her withdrawal, which some rumoured to be a protest, but that turned out to be incorrect. The Kazakh couldn't conceal her dissatisfaction and slammed the WTA for enforcing the rules at the 11th hour.
Contrary to Rybakina's claims, Nicole Melichar-Martinez, an American doubles player who is competing in the doubles draw in Tokyo stated that none of the rules were changed and that the information was in the fact sheet.
Rybakina pulled out from the event on Monday when she was scheduled to play Linda Noskova. It could probably mean that she needed a couple of extra days to recuperate, as she explained in her Instagram stories that she was listening to her body and was forced into making a tough decision.
She also promised to comment on the contentious topic of her bye snub at an unspecified point in the future. Rybakina signed off with a message of appreciation for her fans.
"As a player I want to give my all on the court and at the moment my body is not ready to do that. That's why I decided to listen to my body and withdraw from the tournament. I love Japan, my fans here are so unique and for that reason, this is a tough decision."
"The WTA topic is another topic, on which I have my opinions and will clearly voice them in future. To my fans, thank you for your support, I appreciate it very much."
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