WATCH: Jessica Pegula’s incredible gesture to Liudmila Samsonova wins hearts after Elena Rybakina slams WTA for poor scheduling

Jessica Pegula acknowledges Liudmilla Samsonova's efforts.

WATCH: Jessica Pegula’s incredible gesture to Liudmila Samsonova wins hearts after Elena Rybakina slams WTA for poor scheduling

Jessica Pegula was all praise for her Russian opponent, Liudmila Samsonova, who had to overcome a conflicting schedule to reach the finals of the Canadian Open. The World No. 4 overpowered Samsonova in straight sets to earn a monumental score of 6-1, 6-0.

The Canadian Open received a lot of backlash for its arrangement of matches. Due to rain affecting the schedule, some players had to play back-to-back matches without rest. The 24-year-old had to play her Round of 16 and quarterfinals on the same day. She had to battle through the semi-finals and finals on the same day as well. Everyone agreed that the circumstances were very unfair to her. Even the winner, Pegula, graciously appreciated her effort. In her winning speech, she mentioned, “Congrats to Liudmila. I think everyone needs to give her a round of applause because she’s played like 5 matches in 3 days.”

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In the post-match interview, Samsonova said that it was “strange” that the organizers did not take care of the well-being of the players. The World No. 12 shared how she barely had any time to recuperate between the semi-final and final. She even requested for the match to be pushed back, but they refused, stating that it was not possible.

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Pegula acknowledged in her press conference that Samsonova must have been fatigued, but she also believed that she played “kind of a perfect match”.

Related: Iga Swiatek admits to losing against Jessica Pegula in the ‘physical’ game after a nervy loss in the Canadian Open semis

Elena Rybakina comments on scheduling errors

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Elena Rybakina, Samsonova’s counterpart in the semi-final, also condemned the organizers for their ridiculous scheduling of matches. The Kazakistani player had to play against Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals until 3 a.m. local time on Saturday. She won the prolonged match 5-7, 7-5, 7-6. Her semi-final was then pushed to Sunday, the same day as the final. However, she lost the semi-final with a score of 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.

She called their leadership “weak’ and hoped that things would change for the better because this has become a recurring problem. World No.4 revealed that she only had 15 hours to regain her strength and form before the semi-final.

She said, “Well, we finished at 3. Well, I showered, did some stretching a little bit, and went back to the hotel. I think I fell asleep at 5. Yeah, I mean, I woke up at 10, and then it was impossible to sleep. So, yeah, it definitely was not enough time to recover.” She also went on to call the WTA “unprofessional” for not looking after the players by making them play matches without proper rest.

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