'Really Confusing': Jabeur Echoes Rybakina's Remarks About Performance Byes
WTA
Ons Jabeur has backed comments made by Elena Rybakina about the performance byes, calling the whole situation confusing.
As with almost anything in life, we have split opinions among people. Some players like Iga Swiatek have expressed support or rather understanding of performance byes on the WTA Tour, while plenty of others came out against it.
Most notably, Elena Rybakina blasted the WTA for the 'sudden rule' change, which wasn't sudden at all according to her colleagues. Other players stepped in, explaining that it's not something new or sudden, even though most might not agree with it.
Aryna Sabalenka certainly isn't a fan of it, and Ons Jabeur kind of agrees. She finds the whole ordeal confusing because she won a trophy last week but didn't get a performance bye, for example, and she talked about it at the 2023 China Open.
The rules on performance byes are really confusing. For me, I would have liked to have a bye performance for the Ningbo tournament. If it is allowed to give a tournament 500 to a 1000, then it is allowed to give it from a 250 to a 1000.
I think the calendar should be better. We shouldn't have a tournament in Mexico, then Tokyo and then from Tokyo to here. I feel like, if they're going to give performance byes, maybe they should keep the byes normal and explain the rules better for sure. I don't think we had any explanation for that. I thought I had a bye in Ningbo to begin with and I didn't. It's frustrating.
There has been a lot of talk about the calendar recently, with these incredible travel schedules being more and more common. It could undoubtedly be better so Jabeur can understand the frustration Rybakina felt.
I understand Elena Rybakina’s point & I hope we can find a solution with the WTA and prevent this from happening. Definitely clarify the rules once and for all.
