With two-thirds of the tennis season pretty much gone, the WTA Finals still don't have a host city, and Ons Jabeur is visibly frustrated.
Elena Rybakina recently tore into the WTA, calling its leadership weak, and while some raised an eyebrow at those comments, you don't have to look too far to find incompetence. The Tour has yet to announce where the WTA Finals will be played, and we're only 60 or so days away from it.
That's not a lot of time, and as a player who might be playing at the event, Jabeur is very frustrated as she revealed at the 2023 Cincinnati Masters. The event is tied to Shenzen contractually, but as tennis wasn't played in China during the pandemic and during the following situation around Peng Shuai, the event was hosted by Guadalajara and Forth Worth.
The latter experience was particularly bad because nobody showed up. The event cut ticket prices which helped only mildly, but the choice never made sense. It's not a city with a tennis tradition, again - incompetence.
Yeah, honestly, it's frustrating. I don't know what's happening and why we don't know yet. We are waiting. I heard a few cities. I'm not sure where. Some, they say Saudi. I'm not sure. It could be a great option for myself, to be honest with you (smiling).
There is very little information regarding where the players might be heading but in Jabeur's case, she firsts need to quality. Reaching a quarter-final in Cincinnati is a good start towards that, but she'll need to do more.
But, yeah, I need to qualify first and then see. But I wish they can take the decision as soon as possible so we would know where we want to go and the fans would know so we don't have empty stadiums and we can promote, you know, the WTA Finals as soon as possible.