VENUS WELCOMES SHARAPOVA WILD CARD

New York: Five-time major champion Maria Sharapova of Russia will play her first Grand Slam event since serving a 15-month doping suspension after receiving a wildcard Tuesday into the US Open.

The move by the US Tennis Association comes after Sharapova, ranked 148th this week, was rejected for a wildcard spot into the French Open and missed Wimbledon with a thigh injury.

Sharapova tested positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open and was suspended by the International Tennis Federation, a ban that ended in April.

Since then, Sharapova has needed wildcards to get into tournaments, drawing criticism from some fellow professionals.

Sharapova will also speak to youth about the benefits of the anti-doping programme and the need for players to be vigilant about the banned substance list, something she admitted not doing when she did not catch meldonium being added to the ban list in 2016.

Sharapova has shaken off criticism from rival players about wildcards and the French Open snub, tweeting after being denied a spot at Roland Garros, “If this is what it takes to rise up again, then I am in it all the way, everyday. No words, games or actions will ever stop me from reaching my own dreams. And I have many.”

Players in Cincinnati for this week’s WTA event welcomed Sharapova back into Grand Slam tennis. “I’m sure this is a great moment for her to have an opportunity to be back to a place where she has done so well,” ninthranked Venus Williams said.

The world number six dismissed any notion it would be wrong to give Sharapova a wildcard, saying, “Either way it’s not a controversy. I don’t have a problem with that.”