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Daria Kasatkina hit back at a fan who described Victoria Azarenka's complaints about late starts and late finishes as "whining," telling him he should try working at 3 am but without whining to anyone. After Elena Rybakina openly criticized the WTA for her 3 am finish in Montreal last week and Iga Swiatek suggested there should be a bigger focus on what's healthy for players, Azarenka also sent a strong message to tennis authorities in Cincinnati.
But after reading Azarenka's complaints about late starts and late finishes in tennis, one fan wrote: "Can players stop whining and just play?" Kasatkina noticed the comment and hit back at the fan: "See you at work at 3am and no whining pls!!!"
See you at work at 3am🥰 and no whining pls!!!
https://t.co/4djVCN5ErK — Daria Kasatkina (@DKasatkina) August 16, 2023
Kasatkina defends Azarenka's comments
In recent months, several star players - not just from the WTA - have been speaking out against late starts and late finishes in tennis.
Azarenka, a two-time Grand Slam champion, is a WTA Players Council members and she is one of the players pushing for a change in that aspect. “I absolutely lost it yesterday because we work so hard in the Players Council and I just felt so frustrated, like I’m not making a difference and I put a lot of time, a lot of effort and I’m very direct.
I try to be reasonable, I try to compromise, I try to create ideas and we are moving at the slowest pace to get things done. There are some things behind the scenes that we’re working on, but it’s time to get something concrete done.
This is the only sport in the world where you don’t know when you’re going to play. It was 11 pm yesterday and I didn’t know when I’m going to play. This is unacceptable in any shape or form… I look at it as a player, and it’s ridiculous.
I look at it as a fan, and I don’t know which matches I’m going to go watch because I have no clue, unless you’re very fanatical, but we need to appeal to a bigger crowd to watch our sport," Azarenka said in Cincinnati.