‘Ready to play in a parking lot’

NEW YORK: Maria Sharapova hit back at Caroline Wozniacki over a US Open scheduling row on Friday, saying of her bitter Danish rival: “I’m in the 4th round. I don’t know where she is.”

Wozniacki was furious that her second round match was played on an outside court while five-time major winner Sharapova was playing all of hers in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The Danish woman said it was “unacceptable and questionable” for Sharapova, who is playing her first Grand Slam since the end of a drugs ban, to be given the showpiece court.

“With regards to scheduling, as you know, I don’t make the schedule,” said Sharapova after reaching the fourth round with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Sofia Kenin of the United States. “I’m a pretty big competitor. If you put me out in the parking lot of Queens in New York City, I’m happy to play there. That’s not what matters to me. All that matters to me is I’m in the fourth round. Yeah, I’m not sure where she is.”

Wozniacki, who has never won a Grand Slam, lost her secondround match to Ekaterina Makarova on Wednesday after being scheduled on Court 5 before getting bumped up to Court 10.

‘CENTER’ ATTRACTION “When you look on Center Court, I understand completely the business side of things, but someone who comes back from a drugs sentence -- performance enhancing drugs -- and all of a sudden gets to play every single match on Center Court, I think that’s a questionable thing to do,” fumed the Danish former world number one.

Sharapova, the champion in New York in 2006, returned from a 15-month doping ban in April but was refused a wildcard for the French Open while injury ruled her out of Wimbledon.