Karolina Pliskova continued her search for her top form following surgery to her right hand as she recovered from a set down to defeat French wildcard Tessah Andrianjafitrimo 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 and reach the second round of the French Open.
Afterwards, Pliskova expressed her disapproval at the WTA’s decision to withdraw their ranking points from Wimbledon. Pliskova was last year’s runner-up at Wimbledon, losing to Ash Barty. “I think it’s super tough and unfair and [a] bad decision, that’s what I think,” Pliskova said.
“But I suppose there’s not much you can do about it. I still want to go and compete there, that’s for sure, because I’m not playing because of the points, not even because of the money. I just, of course, I want to win and I want to succeed and I want to maybe get the trophy because I was quite close last year.”
Pliskova was followed into the second round by 2018 champion Simona Halep, who defeated Germany’s Nastasja Schunk 6-4, 1-6, 6-1. The match marked Halep’s first win since hiring Patrick Mouratoglou, formerly the longtime coach of Serena Williams, as her new coach.
Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev spoke bluntly about the removal of points at Wimbledon and urged the governing bodies to be more unified: “I will be honest. I mean, Wimbledon, they break agreement between ATP. That’s the first thing. When you have a deal, you cannot break it. And they did it.”
The Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk [pictured] has criticised the WTA players' council on Tuesday for failing to consult Ukrainian players on the decision to strip Wimbledon of ranking points over their ban on Russian and Belarusian players at this year's event.
The Kyiv-born player also attacked the 'ridiculous' inclusion of Belarus' Victoria Azarenka as a council member, and claimed at least 80% of the players 'had nothing to do with the decision'. The 19-year-old Kostyuk has said she fully supports Wimbledon's decision in the wake of Russia's invasion of her home country.
'None of the players' representatives contacted me,' Kostyuk told Reuters. 'None of them asked about my opinion, what I think. It's like Ukrainian players don't exist,' she added.
'I've been trying to be as vocal as possible but you feel hopeless most of the time about the situation. I'm still 19. What can I say? It's not easy.' Kostyuk is ranked No 58 in the world, currently the third-highest ranked Ukrainian on the WTA Tour. Reuters
Rublev continued: “Even if, I don’t know, Wimbledon, they go together with other slams and will try to create another tour, it will only destroy tennis. It will destroy glory of tennis for many, many hundreds of years that tennis was building.”
