Women tennis' world number three Jessica Pegula has criticised Madrid Open organisers after she alongside her fellow women's doubles finalists was not allowed to address the audience at the trophy ceremony.
Pegula and her fellow American tennis star Coco Gauff lost the women's doubles final by 6-1, 6-4 to Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia on Sunday [May 7] and none of the players were given the chance to address the audience post match.
However, the men's doubles finalists were allowed to make a speech following their match a day earlier.
Pegula talked to the reporters on Tuesday [May 9] ahead of the Italian Open where she was seen criticising the Madrid Open organisation.
“What happened in Madrid, it was really disappointing … I had a feeling something was going to happen,” she said.
“Did I think we were not going to be able to speak? No. I’ve never heard of that … in my life. I don’t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision,” Pegula told reporters.
Pegula's partner Gauff said that she didn’t have a problem with the speech issue, but there was much more to it.
“I have a lot of finals, so it’s not about that,” she told reporters. “It’s more about the principle behind it, so this can’t happen again for future girls, take the opportunity away from them,” said the American tennis star.¬
On the other hand, the Belarusian star Azarenka took this matter to twitter where she said that it was “hard to explain” to her son after she was not allowed to speak at the trophy ceremony.