Indian Wells criticized for what they did to the women’s final which is being labelled as ‘a joke’ by former Grand Slam champion

Draper beat Holger Rune to win the biggest title of his career at Indian Wells, becoming only the second British singles player in history to do so after Cameron Norrie in 2021.

As a result, he has broken inside the top 10 for the first time in his career, with Draper backed as a contender for major titles now.

Prior to Draper winning the men’s singles title, Andreeva fought back to beat Aryna Sabalenka to continue her impressive form of late.

While the 17-year-old was overjoyed by her victory, former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs has pointed out something that she was irritated by for the women’s singles final at Indian Wells.

Rennae Stubbs criticizes Indian Wells for what they did to the women’s final

For finals day at Indian Wells, the women’s singles match was scheduled on first at 11am local time in the Californian desert.

This is something that Stubbs took exception to, posting on social media to express her disappointment at this scheduling, as she implied that the men’s final would not have been positioned at this time in the morning.

“Maybe we should have has the men at 11am!” Stubbs exclaimed on X (formerly known as Twitter). “What a joke they play at 11 for a 1000 final!”

Stubbs, who won four Grand Slam doubles titles, was not alone in these thoughts, as fans agreed with the Australian in the responses and suggested that it was disrespectful to both Andreeva and Sabalenka.

One fan said, “Any final starting at 11 AM is weird to me… I would expect 1 pm. Any idea on why? Is it to accommodate people needing to fly out? I mean can’t think of many professional events other than golf with morning starts on final day.”

An additional social media user said, “I saw the time and wondered the same thing. Seems disrespectful, as if it’s some warmup match for a main event.”

Another person added, “Agreed. Why so early?”

Six-time singles Grand Slam champion Boris Becker also responded to Stubbs, appearing to poke fun at the spelling error that she made.

He said, “Relax Stubbsy…btw (by the way) is have has …correct English? #justsaying”

Stubbs had the last word by claiming that the women’s final was superior to the men’s, “I meant should have had! I was being funny because the men’s match wasn’t as interesting.”