Serena Williams shockingly announced this week that she decided not to play for the rest of the 2015 season. Citing the American World No.1, there have been too many injuries Williams had to struggle with all year long, counting one on her heart lately after losing to Roberta Vinci in New York.
The problem with Serena however, seems to be that she can’t just deliberately walk away from the last tournaments of the season, which include in the list the year-end championships in Singapore. Serena has already qualified for the finals, and there are some strict rules the WTA applies for the final tournament organised in Singapore.
Using the analysis presented by Spanish portal Punto de Break, we can see that Serena could face up to $125.000 of fee if she confirms her decision not to play in Singapore.
That’s because the WTA has a specific rule regarding the year-end championships, which says that players who can’t compete but have qualified are required to assist and attend the event for at least 2 days, at least 3 hours per day, to promote the WTA and the event itself.
Speaking of sanctions, in the box reserved to that, the WTA says that:
“The qualified players who will not play in the event and will not attend the event for promotional matters will face a $125.000 fee for the singles main draw and a $25.000 fee for the doubles tournament. Then a total of 0 points will be issued and will count as the 16th best result for the player, to be counted in the ranking”.
We don’t really think we will see Serena attending Singapore for 2 days for promotional reasons, now that she said she is going to take a break and recharge her batteries to start 2016 at her best.
Also, what about Maria Sharapova and Lucie Safarova? Considering their injuries they might be forced to withdraw too from the Singapore Masters. Will they face a fee too if they can’t show up in Asia?
