Even if tennis fans cheer the return of Maria Sharapova, her rivals are conflicted.
The five-time Grand Slam champion is set to return to competition in April after serving a 15-month suspension for a drug violation. Sharapova is scheduled to debut the exact day her suspension ends, at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she will receive a controversial wild card into the main draw.
The red-carpet treatment has many of the top women’s players dumbfounded. The wild-card entry seems to some like a gift for a player — even a glamorous global celebrity — who was caught cheating.
“It’s a little bit strange, the situation,” former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber said at this week’s tournament at Indian Wells. “I don’t know what to say about this. It’s a little bit strange also for the other players that someone can only just walk on site on Wednesday and play on Wednesday.”
Russian countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova hummed a similar tune. She is wary about a wild card being given to an admitted doper.
“If we talk about cheaters, people who cheat, then you say, ‘Why would cheaters get a wild card?’” Kuznetsova said. “[But] if [it was because of] some mistake, then it’s a little bit different story. But it’s really hard to say.”
Tennis wild cards are often given to lower-ranked players from the country where a bigger tournament is held. They are also awarded to former champions, which explains why Sharapova, who won three consecutive Stuttgart Open titles from 2012-2014, is eligible.
Not all of the top ladies find the wild-card situation puzzling.
“She can receive wild cards because she was No. 1 in the world,” Romania’s Simona Halep said. “She’s a Grand Slam champion, but I think even if she doesn’t get wild cards she can come back easy.”
Sharapova, who tested positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open, had her two-year doping ban cut to just 15 months after she “bore some degree of fault” for the positive test.