Maria Sharapova’s return from a drugs ban has left many on the WTA tour unhappy, and now a former No.1 has called out the US Open tournament for showing favouritism to the returning star.
Caroline Wozniacki has criticised the event for scheduling all of Sharapova’s matches to date on Arthur Ashe, whilst she and other seeds were downgraded to outside courts in a busy schedule.
Wozniacki, who was beaten by Ekaterina Makarova, had this to say: “I think putting out a schedule where the No. 5 is playing on Court 5, fifth match on after 11pm – I think that’s unacceptable.”
Many matches on Tuesday were cancelled or not completed due to heavy rain disrupting play and causing a backlog that saw some outside courts host as many as five matches in a single day.
“You know, and when you look on Centre Court – I understand completely the business side of things – but someone who comes back from a drugs sentence – performance enhancing drugs – and all of a sudden gets to play every single match on Centre Court, I think that’s a questionable thing to do.
‘I think it doesn’t set a good example and I think someone who has fought their way back from injury and is five in the world deserves to play on a bigger court than Court No. 5.”
Sharapova won her second round match, and now has an excellent chance of reaching the quarter-finals with Simona Halep and Johanna Konta already out of the tournament.
