{"id":295663,"date":"2023-05-11T22:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T22:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=295663"},"modified":"2023-05-12T02:00:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T02:00:04","slug":"unacceptable-tournament-apologises-for-sexist-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=295663","title":{"rendered":"'Unacceptable': Tournament apologises for sexist snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Madrid Open<\/a> has apologised for not allowing the women's doubles players to address the crowd<\/a> during the awards ceremony after Sunday's final.<\/p>\n

While the finalists of the men's doubles and men's and women's singles were given the chance to talk to spectators following their matches, winners Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia and losing finalists Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula were oddly denied that customary honour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The circumstance was criticised by the players and bashed by fans on social media.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Broncos fume as legends blast hip-drop decision<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Scary scenes as Bronocs captain stretchered off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Ashes villain linked to deal that will change cricket<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Four days after the incident, tournament CEO Gerard Tsobanian said it would never happen again.<\/p>\n

"We offer our sincerest apologies to all the players and fans who expected more from the Madrid Open," Tsobanian was quoted as saying on the tournament's Twitter account.<\/p>\n

"Not giving the chance to our finalists of women's doubles to speak to fans after the match was unacceptable."<\/p>\n

After the final, Gauff lamented that she and the other players were not able to thank their fans for their support.<\/p>\n

\"Runners<\/p>\n

Pegula said she had never seen anything like it.<\/p>\n

"What happened in Madrid, it was really disappointing," Pegula 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."<\/p>\n

Tsobanian said the event had apologised directly to all four players and that organisers were "working intensely, with the WTA, to revise our protocols."<\/p>\n

"We made a mistake and it will never happen again," he said.<\/p>\n

Tsobanian did not mention other issues that earned criticism.<\/p>\n

Besides dressing ball girls in short skirts and small tops<\/a> in the prominent men's matches, fans on social media questioned the disparity in the size of birthday cakes organisers gave to the tournament's top players.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

Home favourite and successful title defender Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> was presented with a gargantuan cake after his semi final victory, while Aryna Sabalenka<\/a>, the eventual women's champion, received a much smaller cake.<\/p>\n

The ATP-WTA event and its main sponsor ran a spot on Spanish television during the tournament denouncing gender violence against women that included many of the sport's top players.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Madrid Open has apologised for not allowing the women's doubles players to address the crowd during the awards ceremony after Sunday's final. While the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":294224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295667,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295663\/revisions\/295667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/294224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}