Rybakina retirement caps week of unprecedented attrition in Dubai
The WTA has announced the formation of a “Tour Architecture Council” led by Jessica Pegula to overhaul the professional circuit by 2027, triggered by a historic week in Dubai where World No. 3 Elena Rybakina’s retirement on Wednesday brought the tournament’s attrition rate to an unprecedented 53 percent.
Elena Rybakina, WTA 2026 | © Qatar Tennis
Tournament organizers and the WTA face growing pressure to reform the professional calendar after world number three Elena Rybakina became the latest high-profile departure from a decimated Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
The top-seeded Kazakh retired during the third set of her match against Croatian lucky loser Antonia Ruzic, citing gastrointestinal illness and severe fatigue.
Rybakina, who claimed the Australian Open title less than three weeks ago, opted to stop after falling behind 5-7, 6-4, 1-0. Her exit ensures that over half of the original field has now failed to complete the tournament, a statistic that has prompted calls for immediate structural change from both officials and analysts.
Ruzic : ” Why am I playing like this?”
“It was just a heavy head, I didn’t sleep well from yesterday,” Rybakina told the tournament doctor on court before shaking hands with her opponent. “I’m going to stop. I don’t see the reason to continue.”
The beneficiary of the retirement, the 23-year-old Ruzic, is currently enjoying a surreal run. Ranked No. 67, Ruzic originally lost in the first round of qualifying last Saturday and remained on-site only as a doubles alternate.
“Last Saturday I was like, what is this? Why am I playing like this?” Ruzic said after securing her first career WTA 1000 quarterfinal. “I think every player hated the game at least once in a lifetime and now you’re like in the sky. It’s my first time as a lucky loser, you’ve got to take your second chances and I’m taking it.”
Prior to Wednesday, Ruzic had already recorded three-set victories over Anastasia Zakharova and former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.
a Tour Architecture CounciL
The scale of the crisis in Dubai is statistically historic. The list of sixteen pre-match or early-round withdrawals includes global stars Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Naomi Osaka, and Madison Keys, alongside Karolina Muchova, Victoria Mboko, Zheng Qinwen, Marta Kostyuk, Maria Sakkari, McCartney Kessler, Lois Boisson, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Marketa Vondrousova, Veronika Kudermetova, Eva Lys, and Karolina Pliskova.
Furthermore, the event has seen three walkovers from Barbora Krejcikova, Daria Kasatkina, and Sara Bejlek, as well as retirements from Hailey Baptiste, Paula Badosa, and Ella Seidel.
An unprecedented 53% of the field failed to complete the tournament due to exhaustion or illness, underscoring the urgent need for structural reform to preserve the quality of competition.
The WTA has announced the formation of a Tour Architecture Council, a representative working group led by Jessica Pegula, tasked with overhauling the professional tennis framework. Announced on February 18 by WTA Chair Valerie Camillo, the council aims to implement “meaningful improvements” to the tour calendar and player commitments as early as 2027.
Camillo noted that there is a “clear sentiment” across the tour that the current schedule has become unsustainable for athletes due to the intense physical, professional, and personal pressures of competing at the highest level.
