Pegula and Gauff criticize the silencing of tennis players at the Madrid Open | Tennis

The fallout from the Madrid Open’s decision to deny the two women’s doubles finalists a speech during the trophy ceremony on Sunday reverberated in Rome on Tuesday as Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula expressed their frustration with players being silenced by tournament organizers.

Gauff and Pegula were defeated in the final by Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia. Pegula said that she felt tension backstage throughout a Two dramatic weeks in Madrid and “I had a feeling that something would happen.” She did not anticipate that the organizers would refuse to allow the players to address the crowd.

“I thought we weren’t going to be able to talk? No. I have never heard of that in my life,” Pegula said at her pre-tournament press conference. “Even in a $10K challenger final you would talk. I don’t know what century they were all living in when they made that decision or how they actually had a conversation and decided, ‘Wow, this is a big decision we’re going to make and there’s not going to be any backlash against it. ‘”

Tennis tournaments of all levels conclude each event with a trophy ceremony, and speeches are almost always given by the two finalists. In the men’s doubles final a day earlier, both teams spoke. The female finalists didn’t know their speech had been cut until they were invited to take photos with their trophies.

“The guy told me, ‘Now get up on the podium and have a [photo] together.’ then vika [Azarenka] he turned to us and said, ‘No speeches.’ We were like: ‘What?’ She said, ‘We’re not allowed to talk.’ We realized that there were no microphones installed, there is nothing. He was very rushed,” Pegula said.

The events of Sunday had been preceded by problems, serious and funny, during the tournament. Madrid Open organizers were mocked on Twitter for providing a much bigger cake to Carlos Alcaraz than his No. 2 partner Aryna Sabalenka, who shares a May 5 birthday.

Azarenka responded to a viral tweet on the subject by implying that it reflected the tournament’s treatment of the respective genres. “I couldn’t be more precise about the treatment,” she wrote. Feliciano López, director of the tournament and active tennis player, defended the tournament in reply to Azarenka. “I am surprised by this reaction after this gesture!” he wrote on Twitter.

The Guardian understands that Azarenkawa is also critical of programming decisions behind the scenes. On Friday, she and Haddad Maia kicked off their semi-final at 10:50 p.m. Meanwhile, the Madrid Open has a reputation dating back to its previous owners for scheduling women’s matches extremely early or late, and has been criticized for employing models as ball boys.

After the final, Gauff reached out to tournament officials and said he received an apology. “They told me that a situation happened that did not involve me,” Gauff said. “I’m not going to get into that situation. People probably know what it was. But yeah, that’s what they told me. I said that situation for me was not deep enough not to have a trophy ceremony. I think we worked hard to get to that final.”

For Gauff, the main problem is that a tournament that silences players sets a dangerous precedent, and tournaments should be able to absorb criticism, even publicly, without retaliating. “I think the player should address the crowd, the people who came and supported the event,” he said.

“But I think it was more about the principle behind it, that in future cases, maybe I or someone else will criticize the organization or the tournament, maybe deeper than what was said, I don’t know, maybe racism, homophobia, something like that. You can’t just cut, without talking, without anything. You have to accept that criticism.”

Meanwhile, Ons Jabeur called the situation “unacceptable” and expressed the importance of the best players sticking together. “I think it’s also our job as a leading player to stand up for our colleagues and raise the issues,” Jabeur said. “I’m not trying to fight anyone. I’m not trying to, but I feel like we need to be treated better, we need to be treated the right way. That was not the case in Madrid or in other tournaments.

Following his triumph at the Aix-en-Provence Challenger last week, his first title in almost four years, Andy Murray will take on local favorite Fabio Fognini in the first round of the Italian Open on Wednesday.

Murray, who has risen to 42nd in the rankings, said he felt better in his last matches in France than at any time this year.

“I moved well, I hit the ball hard from both sides, I returned well. The last two games are the best I’ve felt on the pitch all year. Better than Australian. Just better than in Doha,” Murray told The Guardian.

Murray was born nine days before Fognini and the two 35-year-olds have been rivals since competing in under-12 tournaments. Fognini, a former Masters 1000 champion, is as talented as he is combative. The last time they met, at Shanghai 2019, an argument ended with Murray telling Fognini to “shut up”. Murray said he will look to remain more composed this time.

“That’s probably my mistake, I just need to focus on tennis and stay fully focused on my side of the net when I play him tomorrow. I’m sure there will be a good atmosphere with the fans here. I’m sure he’ll try to engage with them, get them into the game and everything. I need to be ready for that, just focus on my side of the net.”