Keothavong: Sharapova joint favourite for Paris
Fed Cup captain expects Russian to earn wild card Nastase’s Royal Box ban justified given behaviour
Maria Sharapova should be considered the joint favourite to win the French Open in five weeks’ time and thus crown her comeback to the world stage with a flourish, according to the British Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong.
Sharapova will need a wild card to compete, but Keothavong expects that the strength of her performances in her first tournament, in Stuttgart, should be enough to earn that.
“I was quite impressed with her level of tennis, considering she had been out for 15 months,” said Keothavong. “She looked like she had worked on her game and especially her serve. She was focused and sharp, like the old Maria Sharapova. I wouldn’t be surprised if she got a wild card into the qualifying event in Paris.
“I don’t think she will have it all her own way. Simona Halep is definitely a contender on the clay. Then there’s Kiki Mladenovic, who beat Maria in Stuttgart. Mladenovic is beginning to take the quality she has shown in her doubles performances and put it on the singles court, so she is one to watch. But I would make Sharapova and Halep joint favourites for Roland Garros.”
In Stuttgart, Sharapova tried to shut down any questions about her 15-month doping ban with an icy glare – a response which suggested a lack of contrition. Keothavong was measured in her response.
“She’s obviously made a mistake, and she’s paid a price for it. But I wasn’t in Stuttgart so it’s hard to say how well she dealt with it.”
When it came to the other big controversy of the past month, however, Keothavong has a much more up-close perspective. Asked whether the All England Club were right to ban Ilie Nastase from the Royal Box, and potentially to refuse him entrance to the grounds, she had no hesitation in agreeing. After all, the Romanian Fed Cup captain had called her a “----ing bitch” during their play-off in Constanta a fortnight ago.
“His behaviour that weekend justifies it,” Keothavong said. “I don’t think he’s been apologetic. I don’t think he understands what he’s done is wrong.
“I was bemused by the whole thing,” added Keothavong, who will be commentating on the Madrid Open this week for BT Sport. “It turned into a bit of a farce. We had prepared for a partisan crowd, we had expected him to get involved, but we didn’t expect to be verbally abused. We were sitting there, trying to stay focused, then the next minute you’re getting that. I had never been in that situation before.”
Nastase put out a statement on his Facebook page that began with an apology, though a couple of sentences later he was complaining, “Joanna [sic] Konta had no right to speak to the chairman [umpire]. The team captain is the only one who can do this.”
As Keothavong pointed out: “I think his timeline is different to everyone else’s. He got a few things muddled up. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jo for coming back after the delay [a 20-minute break one game after Nastase’s ejection] and winning five games in a row.”
Yesterday the French Open organisers followed the All England Club by banning Nastase from this year’s Roland Garros tournament, which starts on May 28.