Tatiana Prozorova says she has been forced to withdraw from Saturday’s Singapore Open semifinal after failing part of a concussion assessment administered following her doubles match.
The decision brings an abrupt end to the biggest week of the 22-year-old Russian’s career.
Prozorova defeated Alexandra Eala in the round of 16 before taking out Wang Xinyu on Friday to reach her first WTA semifinal. In fact, she had never previously reached a WTA quarterfinal.
That makes the timing of the withdrawal particularly painful. Prozorova, who had earned just $187,450 in career prize money entering the week, stood to earn another $48,497 with a semifinal victory on Saturday. A title in Singapore would have been worth $185,500 — nearly matching her entire career earnings prior to this tournament.
Instead, Prozorova says the decision to end her tournament was made against her wishes after an incident during her doubles match.
Trailing 7-5, 5-2, Miyu Kato hit a smash in her direction, with the ball (according to Prozorova) grazing her cheek and striking her shoulder (video below shows a signifiacant blow that left her down on the court). She said a physiotherapist subsequently asked her to undergo concussion testing and that she passed every portion of the assessment except a balance exercise requiring her to stand on one leg with her eyes closed.
Prozorova and Sofya Lansere retired the match to Kato and Ellen Perez.
“I explained this to the physio, too,” Prozorova wrote on social media. “Of all the exercises, that was the only one they weren’t happy with, even though I passed all the others.”
Prozorova, who will jump to a career-high ranking of No.123 even with the withdrawal, claims she was then told she would be unable to compete for at least six days. She strongly objected to both the decision and the process, saying she felt “perfectly fine” later that evening and unsuccessfully argued her case with tournament officials.
“The organizer’s decision really upset me. My dream week came to an end today,” she wrote.
Prozorova tagged the WTA, saying the tour needed to “reconsider your own rules” and describing the situation as “a system that renders players absolutely helpless.”
She also claims the mandatory layoff could jeopardize her participation in qualifying in next week’s tournament in Beijing, calling the decision “completely absurd and an overreach of authority by the WTA staff member.”
The WTA has not publicly commented on the circumstances surrounding her withdrawal or responded to Prozorova’s characterization of the concussion testing and subsequent decision.
This is an outrageous decision by the WTA. A tennis player should be totally in charge of a decision on whether or not they are able to play in a tournament match. They can hurt no one but themselves. A tennis ball is not a hockey puck. I have seen tennis players struck in the back of the head by their partners serve and after a brief time to access the result ALL the tennis players that were hit in the head continued to play the remainder of the match and I never heard of any later issues presenting. Big brother overreach. She should sue the WTA for this egregious act.
Not right. WTA is the tournament organizer and they are responsible for the safety and comfort of all players. She could have agreed to sign them off her protection at the competition. I guess WTA did not want to be held liable for any injuries or death.
Too much liability involved in this incident to allow her to continue playing.
I agree with Jay’s comment. Unless struck in the eye, she should be fine to continue. Also balancing on one foot with eyes closed is not easy for most to do for an extended period of time under the best circumstances.
I’ll bet even the physios could not balance on one foot with their eyes closed. It is VERY difficult to do.