Top players envy spotlight on tainted Maria Sharapova
Listen to the crowds, and Maria Sharapova seems as popular as ever. Listen to the competitors, and it’s clear she hasn’t been welcomed back with open arms.
Tennis isn’t the only game going on at the U.S. Open, where complaining about Sharapova has become practically a sport itself. “Everyone has their own opinion,” No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina said Thursday.
And they aren’t shy about sharing it. Some rivals don’t like that she keeps getting to play on Arthur Ashe Stadium - and guess where she’s headed again Friday night?
“When you look on center court, I understand completely the business side of things and everything, but someone who comes back from a drug sentence and performance-enhancing drugs and then all of a sudden gets to play every single match on center court, I think that’s a questionable thing to do,” No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki told Ekstrabladet TV of Denmark. “It doesn’t set a good example.”
Others don’t like that Sharapova’s even here at all. The Russian required a wild card to get into the tournament because of her low ranking and the U.S. Tennis Association was happy to provide it. That’s what the organization has traditionally done for its former champions in need, and Sharapova won the event in 2006.
But this was different. She wasn’t an injured veteran, or an up-and-coming youngster. Her ranking fell because she’d been suspended for doping, a cheat in the eyes of some peers.
Give her spot to someone else, they felt.
“Wild cards are appointed by the USTA. I can’t say I agree. I wish it was an American instead, selfishly, because it is a USA tournament,” American CoCo Vandeweghe said.
“I know from receiving a wild card here, it can be a huge platform to kind of progress through maybe a developing junior or someone that’s coming back from injury or, you know, just somebody that’s on the cusp, next American out that has an opportunity to kind of help their own ranking.”