The 2023 tennis season is nearing its end. After an exhilarating season of tennis, top players are toiling it hard to qualify for the Tour Finals. One of the important tournaments, the WTA 1000 China Open is currently underway where top tennis players are battling it out for glory. With just weeks left for the Tour Finals, this tournament makes it all the more important for players to stake their claim at qualification. However, Czech tennis veteran, Petra Kvitova suffered an unfortunate fate at the tournament.

After a mediocre past few months, Kvitova was hoping to achieve success in China. However, her title hopes ended with a second-round defeat against Liudmila Samsonova. Let’s find out what exactly led to her defeat.

Petra Kvitova slams the WTA after bowing out of China Open

The 2-time Wimbledon champion has been hit by poor scheduling of her matches. For those unknown, her first-round match ended at 1 AM and she had to be on the court again today at 5:30 PM for her second-round match. As a result, she had to play 2 matches in less than 24 hours. Speaking about this, Kvitova slammed the WTA for this poor scheduling.

Posting a story on her official Instagram handle, the 33-year-old wrote, “Far from ideal to finish my match at the @chinaopen at 1am and then be back on the schedule at NB 5:30pm the next day when some first round matches had yet to be played.”

Further, she went on to add, “I have always played the sport with huge respect and rarely speak out, but this time I feel strongly enough to say that there *has* to have been a fairer option. Please do better for your players @wta.”

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Over the past few weeks, there have been many outburst from players for bad scheduling of matches. Even the former World Number 1, Iga Swiatek, brought up this issue.

Iga Swiatek on unideal scheduling of matches

The 22-year-old had to play back-to-back matches on the same day at the Poland Open and the Canadian Open. Additionally, she had to play consecutive night matches at the Cincinnati Open. Talking about this, she said, “There’s only 1 big stadium normally for tournaments, so they have to manage the schedule. But sometimes it would be healthier to play earlier. I wouldn’t mind playing on Court 2 if I could just have a normal night & normal recovery after the match. 1 match like that is cool, I don’t mind… but four? Your whole sleep routine is getting ruined.”

Playing in such a high-intensity atmosphere, it is essential for the players to get proper rest so that they can rejuvenate themselves. It is about time that the WTA considers the players’ well-being and fixes this glaring issue in women’s tennis.

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