Maria Sharapova was invited to the 2017 US Open as a wildcard after her doping ban was lifted, and she has been featured prominently at the tournament by already playing two matches on Center Court at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Caroline Wozniacki has a very big problem with this.
Wozniacki, the No. 5 seed in the tournament, lost to unranked Ekaterina Makarova in the second round Thursday. Following her match, she went off about the scheduling and preferential treatment Sharapova has gotten.
(For those who are blocked) Wozniacki upset about scheduling. #usopen pic.twitter.com/3tqgoQuKF3
— Ashish Jena (@ashishjena94) August 31, 2017
“I think, you know, putting out a schedule where the No. 5 in the world is playing on court five, fifth match on, after 11, I think that’s unacceptable,” Wozniacki said, as transcribed by Laura Wagner of Deadspin. “And when you look on center court, I understand completely the business side of things and everything, but someone who comes back from a drug sentence, performance enhancing drugs, and then all of the sudden gets to play every single match on Center Court, I think that’s a questionable thing to do.”
Wozniacki went on to imply that she feels she should have been given a better draw than Sharapova.
“It doesn’t set a good example,” she said. “And I think someone who has fought their way back from injury and is No. 5 in the world deserves to play on a bigger court than Court 5. Finally they moved us to Court 17, which is a really nice court actually, and we had great atmosphere out there, but um yeah, I think they probably should sometimes look into … what they need to do in the future.”
No fellow player has been more outspoken about Sharapova’s drug suspension than Wozniacki. If you remember, Wozniacki made it clear how unhappy she was about Sharapova getting a wildcard to the Porsche Grand Prix earlier this year. Her opinion obviously has not changed at all.
