Madrid Open organisers apologise to women's doubles finalists who were not allowed speeches - 'We made a mistake'

The Madrid Open organisers have apologised for a controversial tournament where there were no speeches made after the women's doubles final won by Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia on Sunday. Four days after the tournament concluded, chief executive Gerard Tsobanian wrote on Twitter: «We sincerely apologise to all the players and fans who expect more of the Mutua Madrid Open tournament.

Ad »Not giving our women’s doubles finalists the chance to address their fans at the end of the match was unacceptable and we have apologised directly to Victoria, Beatriz, Coco [Gauff] and Jessica [Pegula]. Roland-Garros'She looks primed' — Evert tips Swiatek to win third French Open crown20 HOURS AGO «We are working internally and with the WTA to review our protocols and are committed to improving our process moving forward.

»We made a mistake and this will not ever happen again." In the men's doubles final a day earlier, which was won by Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov, both doubles teams made speeches. Doubles pair Gauff and Pegula expressed their frustration towards the tournament organisers after their defeat to Azarenka and Haddad Maia in the final.

“Did I think we were not going to be able to speak? No. I’ve never heard of that, like, in my life,” Pegula said ahead of the Italian Open this week.

“Even in a $10K challenger final you would speak. I don’t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision or how they actually had a conversation and decided ‘wow, this is a great decision we’re going to do and there’s going to be no backlash against this'." Cake-gate and 'unacceptable' lack of speeches: Madrid Open controversy explained Exclusive: Swiatek 'not going to care' about French Open favourite tag