Ana Ivanovic declines Montreal wildcard
A few weeks ago, organisers of the Rogers Cup in Montreal turned down Ana Ivanovic’s request for a wildcard into the tournament that she won in 2006, and the 2008 French Open champion has now returned the favour.
According to Ivanovic’s website, her management company was contacted on Tuesday by tournament director Eugene Lapierre with the offer of a wildcard but she has now declined that offer.
“I would have loved to have played in Montreal, but I was quite hurt by the comments of Mr Lapierre that I was shown in The Montreal Gazette recently,” Ivanovic is quoted as saying on her website.
“I don’t think his comments were necessary, and they contradicted everything he had told my management previously: that I was not getting a wild card because I am not Canadian.”
Lapierre was quoted in The Montreal Gazette as saying: "The way I analyzed it was that, yes, she's a player who has done a lot for our tournament - almost saved it one year. She has a lot of charisma. Everyone likes her. But the fact is that she hasn't demonstrated [with her play] that she deserves a wild card.”
"It's not the same as a player who has been injured and away for a while. ... She is the one who dropped down to No. 65, not because of an injury."
The upshot is that Ivanovic has now decided against playing in qualifying for the event, stating on her website that: “Unfortunately I don’t feel welcome at this tournament.”
So Montreal has been officially crossed off the list for Ivanovic, but she’s still alive into the third round of the Western & Southern Financial group Women’s Open in Cincinnati and has been granted a wildcard to play in New Haven in the week leading up to the US Open.
Indeed, while it’s hard to get too carried away given the former world No. 1’s prolonged form woes, the fact Ivanovic now finds herself in the third round with – dare we say it – a decent chance of booking a place in the quarter-finals must be a welcome and timely respite for the Serb.
For the first time since January this year, she has strung together back-to-back victories on hard courts, following a three-set victory over ninth seed Victoria Azarenka with a straight sets victory over Yaroslava Shvedova in the second round in Cincinnati.
Ivanovic has put on a brave face as her form dipped and her ranking dived to a current level of world No. 62, but the strain of slipping from world beater to easy beat spilled over after her first-round exit to Shahar Peer in San Diego last week.
Fighting back tears as she fronted the media after that match, Ivanovic said: "It’s very frustrating, you should see my destroyed racquet. I'm never able to make the step and get the momentum. It brings you down."
The next time Ivanovic stepped on court for competition, she defeated the world No. 12 to claim her first victory over a top-20 player away from the clay courts all year.
Bottoming out in San Diego may have been just the tonic for the 22-year-old, who now faces Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the third round of the tournament. The good news is this is one player who Ivanovic has beaten this year, doing so as she renewed her affections for dirt courts in Rome, where she reached the semi-finals to spark what proved to be premature hopes of a revival.
There are plenty of reasons to be cautious about proclaiming that Ivanovic has now turned the corner, but there is once again reason to hope.
Whatever the case, one thing we can now be sure of is that tennis fans in Montreal won’t get to see it firsthand either way.
Tags: