Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil pose whereas holding their trophy’s after profitable the Woman’s Doubles Final match at La Caja Magica on May 07, 2023 in Madrid, Spain.
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The Madrid Open apologized on Thursday for not permitting the ladies’s doubles gamers to deal with the gang through the awards ceremony after final weekend’s remaining.
While the finalists of the lads’s doubles and males’s and ladies’s singles got the possibility to speak to spectators following their matches, winners Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia and dropping finalists Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula had been oddly denied that customary honor after Sunday’s remaining.
The circumstance was criticized by the gamers and bashed by followers on social media.
Four days after the incident, match CEO Gerard Tsobanian mentioned it will by no means occur once more.
“We offer our sincerest apologies to all the players and fans who expected more from the Madrid Open,” Tsobanian was quoted as saying on the match’s Twitter account.
“Not giving the chance to our finalists of women’s doubles to speak to fans after the match was unacceptable.”
After the ultimate, Gauff lamented that she and the opposite gamers weren’t in a position to thank their followers for their assist.
Pegula mentioned she had by no means seen something prefer it.
“What happened in Madrid, it was really disappointing,” Pegula mentioned. “Did I think we were not going to be able to speak? No. I’ve never heard of that in my life. I don’t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision.”
Tsobanian said the event had apologized directly to all four players and that organizers were “working intensely, with the WTA, to revise our protocols.”
“We made a mistake and it will never happen again,” he mentioned.
Tsobanian didn’t point out different points that earned criticism.
Besides dressing ballgirls in brief skirts and small tops within the outstanding males’s matches, followers on social media questioned the disparity within the measurement of birthday desserts organizers gave to the match’s high gamers.
Home favourite and profitable title defender Carlos Alcaraz was offered with a gargantuan cake after his semifinal victory on Friday, whereas Aryna Sabalenka, the eventual ladies’s champion, acquired a a lot smaller cake.
The ATP-WTA occasion and its essential sponsor ran a spot on Spanish tv through the match denouncing gender violence in opposition to ladies that included most of the sport’s high gamers.
