Madrid Open: Jessica Pegula, the third-ranked player in the world, blasted the Madrid Open’s organisers for preventing the American and the other women’s doubles champions from speaking at the trophy presentation.
On Sunday, Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia defeated Pegula and Coco Gauff in the women’s doubles final, 6-1, 6-4, although none of the competitors had the opportunity to address the crowd.
The winners of the men’s doubles match from the day before were permitted to do so.
“The events in Madrid were really disappointing. Prior to this week’s Italian Open,” Pegula remarked, “I had a sense something was going to happen. Did I fear we wouldn’t be able to communicate? No.
“In my entire life, I’ve never heard of that. I have no idea what century anyone was in when they came to that conclusion or how they came to the conclusion after having a dialogue that there would be no negative consequences to their choice.
“I never heard we wouldn’t be able to converse in my life. It was incredibly depressing. If the prize was $10,000, you would speak.
so unfortunate that you were not given a chance to address the crowd and your opponents. This is sad and unacceptable 🤯 https://t.co/XGc7aW0s22
— Ons Jabeur (@Ons_Jabeur) May 7, 2023
“It was self-evident. When it happened, we were unhappy and informed that we couldn’t speak during the award ceremony. It sort of supported a claim.”
Madrid Open organisers were quoted by BBC Sport as saying of the choice: “The tournament will not comment on the matter.”
Gauff clarified that the speech itself was not the problem.
Gauff stated, “I have a lot of finals, so it’s not about that. It’s more about the underlying principle: deny future ladies the chance so that this can’t happen again.”
Hard to explain to Leo that mommy isn’t able to say hello to him at the trophy ceremony
— victoria azarenka (@vika7) May 7, 2023
“The fact that Azarenka was unable to speak at the trophy ceremony was ‘hard to explain’ to her son Leo,” according to Azarenka. Ons Jabeur, the seventh-ranked player in the world, who was not present in Madrid, stated on social media that it was “sad and unacceptable” that players were not permitted to speak.
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