Aryna Sabalenka criticizes San Diego Open over scheduling after quarterfinal loss to Donna Vekic
Aryna Sabalenka expressed her displeasure with the scheduling at the ongoing WTA San Diego Open after her quarterfinal exit from the tournament on Friday. Sabalenka had less time to recover after winning her Round of 16 match in three sets on Thursday before she took to the court for her quarterfinal.
Sabalenka bowed out of the 2022 San Diego Open with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 loss against Donna Vekic in the first match of the day on Friday. While Vekic had a full day's break between her Round of 16 and quarterfinal matches, Sabalenka won her second-round match against Sloane Stephens late on Thursday evening, giving her a much shorter recovery time. Sabalenka recovered after dropping the opening set 6-1 to Stephens to register a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory against the home favorite.
Sabalenka took to Instagram to take a sly dig at the organizers while still clearly expressing her anger. She shared a screenshot of the 'sleep app' on her phone, indicating that she played her match against Vekic with a lack of sleep and rest.
"Thanks for the great schedule," Aryna Sabalenka sarcastically wrote in her Instagram post.
Like Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, and Madison Keys also played their respective second-round matches on Thursday, but finished their matches well before Sabalenka's match against Stephens. However, Keys' quarterfinal against Jessica Pegula and the showpiece Swiatek-Gauff quarterfinal match were both scheduled after Sabalenka's match on Friday.
Aryna Sabalenka's 2022 season so far
Aryna Sabalenka started the 2022 season ranked No. 2 in the WTA rankings, but failed to make it past the Round of 16 in her first four tournaments, including the Australian Open. She then made her first quarterfinal of the season at the Qatar Open in February but lost to Swiatek. Sabalenka reached her first WTA final of the season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in April, again falling short against Swiatek.
Sabalenka also reached the final of the Libema Open before Wimbledon, losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova. The Belarusian player could not compete at Wimbledon due to a ban imposed by Wimbledon on Russian and Belarusian players in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
She returned to the tour in San Jose and made at least the quarterfinals in three of her next four tournaments, including back-to-back semifinals at the Cincinnati Open and US Open.