Coco Gauff made headlines when she brandished the WTA Finals as ‘kinda stupid’ after her defeat to Linda Noskova.
“The scenarios, I know they make sense, but they’re kinda stupid. If I win my match [Thursday] and I still don’t qualify, I’m like, ‘It’s okay, it’s cool.’ I’m looking forward to next year. I can’t say much, but everybody knows that has to change,” said Gauff.
Gauff did win her final match at the WTA Finals, against Marta Kostyuk, but she didn’t qualify for the semifinals, missing out to Jessica Pegula.
After confirmation that she would no longer play a part in the 2026 WTA Finals, she clarified what she meant when she called the format ‘stupid’.
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Coco Gauff criticises ‘stupid’ WTA Finals rules and hints they could change after Linda Noskova loss
In an interview with The Tennis Channel after beating Kostyuk, Gauff said: “I wasn’t saying the format was stupid. I was saying if you get in your head while you’re playing into all the scenarios, that’s stupid.”
Gauff’s comments suggested there could be a major overhaul of the WTA Finals format and she also divulged what she has heard about that.
“Did I leak info that’s kind of already out there?,” said Gauff. “Sue me, I don’t know.”
It is currently unclear what format change for the WTA Finals would be, but it would be very disappointing to see the tournament revert to a straight knockout.
The WTA Finals’ round robin phase is a nice change from the knockout format players compete in for the other 10 months of the year.
It could water down the format of the WTA Finals at the end of a gruelling season and make it less special for the top players to compete in.
Prior to 2002, the WTA Finals was a straight knockout tournament for the top 16 players on the WTA Tour.
It’s hard to see that being interesting enough to sustain tennis fans in a world where they essentially get to see that at every tournament across the entire calendar in women’s tennis.
Introducing another eight players would also not make the tournament any more star-studded either, outside of potentially Alexandra Eala’s involvement in the event.
The likes of Elise Mertens, Sorana Cirstea, and Maja Chwalinska, who currently occupy positions between world No 8 and world No 16, would not be putting any more bums on seats when it came to television ratings or ticket sales.
Nevertheless, it looks like a major change is incoming for the WTA Finals and Gauff has all but confirmed the news following her exit from this year’s tournament.
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Esta notícia foi originalmente publicada em: Fonte original