By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Sunday, October 1, 2023
Performance byes don't make the cut for Aryna Sabalenka.
World No. 1 Sabalenka slammed the WTA's trialing of performance byes as absurd.
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The WTA is trialing performance byes, which are byes based on performances from the prior tournament.
Sabalenka says she does not see the logic in the trial rule and opposes it.
"I knew they sent this email earlier, that everyone knows about this performance bye, but I kind of like didn't get it," Sabalenka said after she swept Sofia Kenin 6-1, 6-2, in her Beijing opener. "I thought it was like extra byes. I don't understand that. Players getting byes from playing semifinals on the lower tournament, they getting bye on 1000 tournament, I don't get it.
"I think you have to own these byes. You have to own it by consistency of your game, not just by playing good at one tournament, then you get this advantage. No, you have to deserve it. I don't understand that. I don't agree with that."
Australian Open champion Sabalenka is the second prominent Grand Slam champion to criticize the change.
Last week, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina missed out on a bye in Tokyo due to the performance bye. Rybakina ripped the rule in an Instagram post and later withdrew from Tokyo prior to her opening match citing an illness.
“Performance bye,” Rybakina wrote on Instagram, the words superimposed over pasted copy of the draw in bold black and white. “Thank you for changing the rules last moment… great decisions as always, WTA.”
US Open finalist Sabalenka objects to the rule because she feels it devalues the work players have done in the prior 52 weeks to register their ranking and does not believe a performance bye should apply when it comes to seeding players at a higher-level tournament.
"I mean, I'm happy for those players who got it, but I think this is not acceptable," Sabalenka told the media in Beijing. "I think -- not I think, but I hope it's not going to be the same later.
"I mean, it would be understandable if it would be from 1000 in Guadalajara to 1000 here. I mean, I got it, of course take it. But not from 500 tournament to 1000 tournament."
Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty