Madrid
\nWomen tennis\u2019 world number three Jessica Pegula has criticised Madrid Open organisers after she alongside her fellow women\u2019s doubles finalists was not allowed to address the audience at the trophy ceremony.
\nPegula and her fellow American tennis star Coco Gauff lost the women\u2019s 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.
\nHowever, the men\u2019s doubles finalists were allowed to make a speech following their match a day earlier.
\nPegula talked to the reporters on Tuesday [May 9] ahead of the Italian Open where she was seen criticising the Madrid Open organisation.
\n\u201cWhat happened in Madrid, it was really disappointing \u2026 I had a feeling something was going to happen,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cDid I think we were not going to be able to speak? No. I\u2019ve never heard of that \u2026 in my life. I don\u2019t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision,\u201d Pegula told reporters.
\nPegula\u2019s partner Gauff said that she didn\u2019t have a problem with the speech issue, but there was much more to it.
\n\u201cI have a lot of finals, so it\u2019s not about that,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s more about the principle behind it, so this can\u2019t happen again for future girls, take the opportunity away from them,\u201d said the American tennis star.\u00ac
\nOn the other hand, the Belarusian star Azarenka took this matter to twitter where she said that it was \u201chard to explain\u201d to her son after she was not allowed to speak at the trophy ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madrid Women tennis\u2019 world number three Jessica Pegula has criticised Madrid Open organisers after she alongside her fellow women\u2019s 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\u2019s doubles final by 6-1, 6-4 to Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-330697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n