Daria Kasatkina is not a fan of the qualification rules for the WTA Finals.
Daria Kasatkina is not happy with the WTA including a Grand Slam winner outside of the top eight among the qualifiers for the Finals. The 27-year-old was called up to replace the injured Jessica Pegula on Thursday and was rewarded with a £154,000 payout.
Under the new rules, players who occupy the top seven in the WTA Race secure automatic qualification for the Finals. The remaining place is reserved for the highest-ranked Grand Slam winner between eighth and 20th who is not already qualified.
Barbora Krejcikova was the beneficiary of that rule, earning her spot at the WTA Finals due to winning Wimbledon earlier this year. She has made the most of her opportunity, having reached the semi-finals with statement wins over Pegula and Coco Gauff.
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Kasatkina, who lost to Iga Swiatek in straight sets on Thursday, believes only the top eight in the WTA Race should qualify for the Finals with no places reserved for Grand Slam champions.
She said: “In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race so it’s about how many points you earn during the year. If you win a Grand Slam, you already got what you achieved.
“You won the Grand Slam, points, money, glory, everything. Here, it’s the WTA Race, so I think in this scenario it has to go by points.”
Despite her emphatic win over Kasatkina, Swiatek failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the WTA Finals due to other results going against her. Krejcikova’s win over Gauff meant that she progressed to the semi-finals instead of Swiatek.
After the match, the Pole admitted she was unaware that qualification was out of her hands, saying: “Honestly, I don’t think it matters, like we go out on court to win every match anyway, so I wasn’t thinking about that.
“I didn’t know that this is the case. I’m professional enough to always give 100 per cent no matter what the stakes are. If I’m not going to play semis then I’ll have a couple of days off.
“I can’t take back time and play better in the match that I played against Coco. I won two matches in the group, so I guess I did everything I could to be there.”
Krejcikova will face Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the last four, while Gauff will go up against Aryna Sabalenka. Both matches are set to be played on Friday with the final taking place on Saturday.
