The Colombian women Camila Osorio (45ª of the WTA ranking) spoke about the small number of tournaments in South America and how this affects the performance of female tennis players in the region after not having the same chances of competing compared to their colleagues and men.
“We are missing WTA tournaments to grow. You see the ATP and they have up to five tournaments. Only here in Mexico do you find tournaments where you can compete, but in South America it is difficult“, commented the number one racket in Latin America.
The 20-year-old took advantage of her loss to the Russian Anna Kalinskaya (100th) in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open by 6-4 and 6-1 to show their discontent with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for the few opportunities they have to climb the ranking and add points that give them the possibility of playing new tournaments.
To account for the importance of these facts, Within the first 100, only two are from South America, the Colombian and the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (70ª). Just in position 106 is Nadia Podoroska and to find the 10 best Latin American women in the WTA you have to go to 231st place, where the Chilean is Daniela Seguel.
Similarly, Osorio acknowledges that the circuit is increasingly filled with young promises with Latin blood: “Little by little more girls come out, but it must be said that it is harder for us to stand out, despite that here we go, little by little we are having more presence“.
However, the difference in relation to the number of tournaments offered by the ATP in the region is abysmal. While in the 2022 calendar only three contests appear WTA (Zapopan, Monterrey and Bogota), the male circuit has two in Argentina, one in Brazil and Chile and two more in Mexican lands.
