Cake-gate and 'unacceptable' lack of speeches after women's doubles final: Madrid Open controversy explained
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Published 08/05/2023 at 10:51 GMT
There was cake and speech controversy at the Madrid Open, with Ons Jabeur and Victoria Azarenka among those critical of the situation. Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka were presented with different sizes of birthday cakes while there were no speeches after the women's doubles final, which was labelled "unacceptable". Runners-up Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula also had their say.
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The final weekend of the 2023 Madrid Open should have been all about celebrating champions Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka.
Instead the significance of their victories was mixed in with moments of controversy. Firstly over the respective sizes of the birthday cakes given to Alcaraz and Sabalenka, and then to the “sad and unacceptable” lack of speeches after the women’s doubles final.
We break down everything that happened over the last few days of the tournament and what was said by the players...
‘I’m surprised by this reaction’
Alcaraz and Sabalenka were both born on May 5, so were both celebrating turning a year older while they were still playing at the Madrid Open.
To mark the occasion the tournament presented both players with birthday cakes.
Alcaraz got his cake after beating Borna Coric to reach the final, while Sabalenka received her cake on a day off as she prepared for the final.
Alcaraz was presented on court with a huge two-tier cake with sparklers on the tray around it and a tennis ball and a '20' on top. By contrast, Sabalenka got a standard-looking size birthday cake with some sparklers and candles, and ‘Happy Birthday Aryna’ written on the top.
“That doesn’t look right,” tweeted former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in response to a comparison picture of the two cakes.
“Couldn’t be more accurate on the treatment,” added former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
The insinuation was that, in a sport where there is still a fight for equality between men and women, the male player had been favoured again. Perhaps it stood out more given that just recently Alcaraz took home €477,000 (£416,139) for winning the Barcelona Open, while Iga Swiatek pocketed €104,000 (£90,728) for winning the Stuttgart Open the same week.
The Madrid Open pays equal prize money to men and women, and tournament director Feliciano Lopez came to the defence of the cake choices. He also pointed out that Holger Rune got a similar cake to Sabalenka to celebrate his birthday the previous week.
“I’m surprised by this reaction after this gesture,” Lopez said on Twitter.
“1. Carlos had just won his match to reach the final
"2. He was playing on centre court
"3. The tournament is played in Spain, even though it is an international event.
“PS: I hope Rune wasn’t also upset by his treatment.”
Sabalenka seemed to make light of the situation after winning the tournament.
"I think it's all because of yesterday's cake, it was too good,” she said with a laugh while standing next to Lopez at the trophy presentation ceremony.
‘Sad and unacceptable' speech situation
Unfortunately for Lopez the controversy did not end there.
After the women’s doubles final, which saw Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia beat Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, neither team was given the chance to address the crowd. Why is not clear, but the situation was raised by three of the four players on social media later.
“Wasn’t given the chance to speak after the final today,” wrote Gauff on Twitter with a sad face emoji.
“But thank you to the fans for supporting us and women’s tennis this week! Thanks Jessica Pegula for always keeping it fun on the court and hitting unreal clutch shots hahahaha
“Lastly, big congratulations Vika and Bia.”
Pegula responded to Gauff's message with a mouth zipped emoji, a thinking emoji, and a woman shrugging emoji.
Azarenka added: “Hard to explain to Leo [her son] that mommy isn’t able to say hello to him at the trophy ceremony.”
The men’s doubles final, which was won by Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov, did have speeches afterwards, and world No. 13 Ons Jabeur was surprised by the situation.
“So unfortunate that you were not given a chance to address the crowd and your opponents,” she wrote in response to Gauff’s tweet.
“This is sad and unacceptable.”
The Madrid Open is followed by the Italian Open, which is the final big clay event before the French Open.
The second Grand Slam of the season starts on May 28.
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