The WTA Finals are racing toward an epic showdown! With the top 4 players decided for the semi-finals, fans are buzzing with anticipation, ready for some seriously thrilling battles. But there’s a new twist stealing just as much of the spotlight. A recent WTA rule has sparked a fresh controversy, and Russian star Daria Kasatkina isn’t staying silent. She’s raising bold questions—and indirectly drawing Barbora Krejcikova into the mix, adding an extra layer of intrigue. As Kasatkina stirs the pot, the drama is spilling over and giving fans even more to talk about!

The Russian tennis sensation qualified for the tournament after Jessica Pegula decided to withdraw following an injury in her left knee. However, Kasatkina could not achieve much and was baffled against Iga Swiatek in straight sets 6-1, 6-0, and was whisked out in just 51 minutes. Now, she seems to be igniting fresh controversy by slamming the rule of the tournament, pertaining to the qualification scenario for the top-8 players. 

Speaking after the defeat, Kasatkina said, “In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race. So it’s about the 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.” For the unversed, as per the latest rule implemented in 2024, a reigning Grand Slam winner gets priority over the eighth-ranked player to qualify for the event. Hence, Wimbledon winner Krejcikova ranked 13, was given a preference over World No. 8 Emma Navarro, who decided not to come to Riyadh as an alternate.

 Continuing further, Kasatkina emphasized her point again and said, “Here it’s the WTA Race. So I think in this scenario, it has to go by points.” However, she noted that she would still have been the first alternate had the rule not been introduced. Now, this comes at a time when the organizers are already facing immense backlash over the crowd density at the tournament. 

On Sunday, which is a working day in Riyadh, only 400 people turned up to watch Gauff defeat Pegula in a thrilling fashion. This is despite the cheap ticket prices that start as low as $7.19.This, however, is not the first time that a WTA rule has faced backlash in recent times. 

Recently, Swiatek lost her World No. 1 spot to Aryna Sabalenka due to her absence from the courts after the US Open. But a major factor behind her decline in the ranking table was the rule which mandates top players to play at least 10 WTA 1000 tournaments and 6 WTA 500 tournaments. With Swiatek playing only two WTA 500 events, she lost crucial points and was outshined by Sabalenka. This rule was quickly criticized with fans highlighting the toll that it takes on the physical and emotional aspects of a player. Coming back to Daria Kasatkina, this is not the first time she has slammed the WTA Tour for a decision this season. 

When Daria Kasatkina slammed WTA for “terrible” decisions

Daria Kasatkina has never failed to opine her thoughts as can be witnessed by her latest remarks. Interestingly, she has also expressed her disappointment against the tournament organizers early this year, for their “terrible” decisions pertaining to scheduling of tournaments. 

Remember, Kasatkina booked a spot for herself in the Abu Dhabi Open finals. However, just after her match that was scheduled for February 11, Sunday, she was forced to play in an opening-round clash on the next day as part of her campaign in the Qatar Open. This infuriated the player who said, “It’s terrible scheduling, honestly. I don’t know how you can schedule the finals of the tournament on Sunday, wanting to finish the next tournament on Saturday, so you start it on Sunday, and like this, the player, if like me, you don’t have a bye in Doha, I have to play on Monday.” 

Taking a sarcastic dig, she added, “We don’t have yet this technology that I can just do like this (snaps her fingers) and be in Doha in five seconds.” But for now, it would be interesting to see if the WTA officials would come out to issue a clarification over the latest rule which seems to be troubling Daria Kasatkina.