Grudge match as French critic awaits Maria
WITHOUT her even being guaranteed entry into the field, some bookmakers are making Maria Sharapova favourite to win next month’s French Open.
That is based on the impressive evidence of her reaching today’s semi-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, in which she faces her first match with a potential grudge element, against Kristina Mladenovic.
Should Sharapova win — following yesterday’s 6-3, 6-4 victory over Anett Kontaveit — then she will be guaranteed entry into the qualifying event for both the French Open and Wimbledon. A direct entry into the main draw of SW19 is very much looking achievable.
Mladenovic is an interesting opponent, because when Sharapova first admitted testing positive for Mildronate a year last March the Frenchwoman went further than most in her criticism.
Offering the view that ‘all the other players are saying she’s a cheater,’ Mladenovic at the time told Le Parisien: ‘She can play with words and find a good lawyer but on the principles of the situation, she’s wrong.’
Yesterday, asked if Sharapova should have received a wildcard this week, Mladenovic said: ‘I understand the tournament wanting her here because she is very famous. The question is why would she get that extra help compared to other players.’
Sharapova’s latest comfortable victory came on the day that the tennis authorities announced they would substantially step up drug testing in the game. The timing of this week might not have been entirely coincidental.
There will now be 8,000 tests per year and 250 players covered by biological passports. Equally significant is the fact that, belatedly, many of the samples will go into long-term storage for retroactive examination in future. When asked about the development, Sharapova replied: ‘That’s great,’ although she declined to say how often she had been tested in the past.
Her composure only slipped after she had poured praise on the coaching staff that have stuck with her.
When Sportsmail asked if they had been upset that she had kept her long-term use of Mildronate secret from them, she became flustered and fired back: ‘That’s such an inappropriate question.’ Everything on court, however, is going to plan, and she has made the semi-finals without dropping a set. Already she is guaranteed to be around 260 in the world rankings after one tournament and, should she beat the muchimproved world No 19 today, then it will be close to the 180-mark. The ‘cut-off’ for the Roland Garros and Wimbledon qualifying entry will be around 200, so she will be well inside that. Meanwhile, Andy Murray (left), yesterday came back from the brink to score a potentially significant win to make the Barcelona Open semi-finals. The world No 1 struggled at times but eventually defeated his conqueror at the Monte Carlo Open, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 in two hours 59 minutes.
The Spaniard, 29, at a careerhigh ranking of 19, took advantage of a string of unforced errors from Murray to take the first set.
There were more positive signs in the second from the Scot, who faced 15-40 at 3-3 and then 0-40 at 4-4, but held his nerve to level it.
Ramos-Vinolas led 2-0 in the decider but the Scot came through in the tie-break.
He now faces last year’s French Open semi-finalist Dominic Thiem — who has already taken the scalps of Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans this week.
British No 4 Aljaz Bedene reached the semi-finals of the ATP event in Budapest with his fifteenth straight win, beating second seed Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 6-3.