OVER SHARAPOVA RAPOVA
Tennis fans sour on doping star’s return
Maria Sharapova has not been welcomed back to tennis with Open arms by everyone.
Although the former No. 1 player handily defeated American Sofia Kenin on Friday night, advancing to a fourthround match at the US Open on Sunday, she still has a lot of work to do when it comes to winning back fans.
Arthur Ashe Stadium crowds have shown far more love to Sharapova’s three opponents after her return from a 15month doping suspension.
“Athletes have to know what they’re putting in their bodies,” said Luc Wynder from St. Paul, Minn., who believes Sharapova’s decade-de-long use of the drug meldo-meldonium constituted cheat-cheating. “She let the fansns down.”
A woman who flipped through her commemora-tive program and came upon a Sharapova pictorialal loudly declared,d, “I’m gonna send thisis back to the USTA!”
But the stadium was also dotted with defenders.
“I think she deserves to be back,” said Daniel Skaf of the Upper East Side. “TThe crowd wants a comecomeback. The crowd wants tto see her at the US OpOpen, despite how much ththey like or dislike herher.” Fellow players are ppillorying the 2006 OOpen winner, too. DDenmark’s Caroline Wozniacki told the press that Sharapova, as a wild card, doesn’t deserve to play repeatedly on AAshe, tennis’ US biggbiggest stage. “I understand complepletely the business side of things and everything,” Wozniacki said. “But someone who comes back from a drug sentence . . . and then all of the sudden gets to play every single match on center court, I think that’s a questionable thing to do.”
But a defiant Sharapova returned Wozniacki’s serve.
“I don’t make the schedule. And you know, I’m a pretty big competitor, and if you put me out in a parking lot of Queens in New York City, I’m happy to play there,” Sharapova said Friday. “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 [Wozniacki] is.”