Tennis News: Sabalenka feels ‘disrespected’, Pete Sampras’ sad revelation

The WTA simply didn’t seem prepared for their year-end event. The Women’s Tennis Association seemed to be holding all its cards in hopes that the WTA Finals would be held in Saudi Arabia. In fact, the decision to hold the event in Cancun, Mexico wasn’t made until September. That, among other things, seems to have really upset Aryna Sabalenka.

The top-ranked player on the WTA tour said, in fact, that she felt disrespected by the WTA for the organization’s seeming lack of preparedness. Not only was there a question of where the WTA finals would be held, but the courts in Cancun where matches are currently being held weren’t ready until days before the tournament.

Worse than Sabalenka not being happy with how the WTA handled the Finals, she said she didn’t feel safe playing on the courts due to how quickly they had to be constructed. Sabalenka told the press on Sunday, “To be honest, I don’t feel safe moving on this court a lot of the time. The bounce is not consistent at all and we weren’t able to practice on this court until yesterday for the first time.”

Aryna Sabalenka is unhappy with the WTA and Pete Sampras shares sad news

Sabalenka also thought she spoke for most players when she said about the courts and the preparation by the WTA, “…as a player, I really feel disrespected by the WTA. I think most of us do.”

In other, and much sadder, news, 14-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras revealed on Sunday that his wife, actress Bridgette Wilson, has been battling ovarian cancer. She found out she had cancer last December and has since gone through surgery, and chemotherapy, and she continues to do targeted chemo, according to Sampras.

Sampras was always an exceptionally private person as a player, preferring to keep his real-life activities distant from his tennis life. He played tennis to afford his life, but he didn’t truly live to play tennis. He and Wilson have been married since 2000 and they have two children together.

One probably wishes Sampras didn’t have to come forward with this news either, simply because we wish his wife wasn’t battling cancer. Also, let’s just hope that some news outlet wasn’t going to break the news and Sampras felt the need to get ahead of the narrative. That’s kind of the world we live in today, sadly.