Tournament director Salah Tahlak has called for deducting ranking points from players who make last-minute withdrawals from events, in the wake of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek pulling out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. <\/p>\n
The world\u2019s top two opted out of competing in Dubai this year, announcing their withdrawal late on Friday after the qualifying rounds had started. <\/p>\n
Sabalenka, who lost in the Australian Open final to Elena Rybakina two weeks ago, pulled out of last week\u2019s Qatar Open and was due to return to action in the UAE. <\/p>\n
She posted a video of herself practicing on the courts at Atlantis the Royal hotel on Palm Jumeirah two days ago before she decided to withdraw from the Dubai tournament citing a right hip injury.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Swiatek, who fell to Maria Sakkari in the Doha quarter-finals on Thursday, cited a change of schedule as her official reason to skip the Dubai event<\/a>. <\/p>\n With 16 of the world\u2019s top-20 stars still present in the Dubai field, Tahlak says he is certain the tournament will deliver high-quality matches, but he admits the withdrawals of Sabalenka and Swiatek<\/a> came as a \u201csurprise\u201d and he believes the threat of deducting ranking points would discourage players from pulling out of big events at the 11th hour. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was an unfortunate surprise last night to get news of the withdrawal of Aryna and Iga. And the reasons for withdrawal were a bit strange. Iga said she wasn\u2019t mentally ready to compete, while Sabalenka said she has some minor injuries,\u201d Tahlak said after the draw ceremony<\/a> on Saturday. <\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t know. I think there should be a harsher punishment on the players [for withdrawing], not just fines, they should be docked ranking points.<\/p>\n \u201cI even asked the [tournament] doctor, what is the injury? He said it\u2019s a minor injury, not one that would force her to withdraw from the tournament. And for Iga, I asked, \u2018Isn\u2019t this a strange decision?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dubai is one of 10 WTA 1000 mandatory tournaments on the tour\u2019s schedule. <\/p>\n There are several consequences to withdrawing from a mandatory tournament, according to the WTA rulebook, including monetary fines \u2013 that could increase for repeat offenders \u2013 and receiving a \u2018zero-pointer\u2019 in your ranking. <\/p>\n Players citing injuries have to see a tournament doctor to confirm their physical ailment, while players can withdraw with a \u2018change of schedule\u2019 reason three times per season, which incurs a zero-pointer but no fine. <\/p>\n \u201cI think a fine will not do anything,\u201d Tahlak continued. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel they should deduct points from the players. A monetary fine won\u2019t help. Many years ago, Serena Williams withdrew and was fined $100,000. But what is $100,000? She would play someplace else and make $1,000,000. So the fine isn\u2019t a big deal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a meeting coming up in Rome and I want to shed light on this issue. We have a representative on behalf of the international group [of tournaments] to speak for us with the WTA. Because it\u2019s a shame that we\u2019re spending these huge amounts to upgrade our facilities and in the end the players are the main part (of this tournament).\u201d<\/p>\n In a separate interview with Al Bayan, Tahlak suggested players get docked 500 or 1000 points for making last-minute withdrawals. <\/p>\n \u201cThis will be felt more than a fine,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n