Sharapova receives invitation to Open

Maria Sharapova was granted a wild-card invitation for the U.S. Open’s main draw Tuesday and will take part in a Grand Slam event for the first time in more than 1½ years.

Sharapova is among eight women given entry into the 128-player field by the U.S. Tennis Association — and by far the most noteworthy.

The former No. 1-ranked player and owner of five major titles, including the 2006 U.S. Open, has not entered a major tournament since the Australian Open in January 2016, when she tested positive for the newly banned drug meldonium.

That led to a 15-month doping ban, which expired in April. She returned to the tour, but her ranking — currently 148th — was too low to allow entry into major tournaments, and the French Open denied her a wild card. Sharapova planned to try to qualify for Wimbledon, but the 30-year-old Russian wound up skipping the grass-court portion of the season because of an injured left thigh.

The USTA didn’t consider her suspension in awarding the wild card, saying it was following past practice of granting one to former U.S. Open champions who needed them, such as Martina Hingis, Lleyton Hewitt, Kim Clijsters and Juan Martin del Potro.

The U.S. Open starts in New York on Aug. 28.

Tourney’s woes continue: Milos Raonic became the seventh player ranked in the men’s top 10 to withdraw from the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio, right before fellow seeded players Tomas Berdych and Jack Sock were knocked out in first-round matches.

Juan Martin del Potro advanced to the second round by beating Berdych, the 10th seed, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-0. Yuichi Sugita followed with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Sock, seeded 13th.

On the women’s side, secondseeded Simona Halep downed Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-1 and seventh-seeded Johanna Konta beat Kiki Bertens 6-3, 6-3 in second-round play.

Ninth-seeded Venus Williams cruised into the second round, needing just 66 minutes to beat Alison Riske 6-2, 6-0.