After making a surprise early exit at the Western & Southern Open this week, world number three Maria Sharapova said that she won’t be taking a wild card in next week’s New Haven Open. The New Haven event is the last tournament in the Emirates Airline US Open Series and is the final warm-up event before the US Open tennis championships.
Sharapova, playing in her first tournament since her early exit at Wimbledon, was upset by American Sloane Stephens in three sets on Tuesday. Sharapova lost in the second round of Wimbledon to Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal. She pulled out of hardcourt events last month due to injured hip. She skipped Stanford and Toronto.
New Haven organizers have expressed their interest in handing out a wild card to Sharapova but the Russian declined.
“I’m planning on playing a lot of matches in New York, and just for the body it’s tough to play a week before if you’re planning on doing extremely well in that event,” she told reporters. “I’ve just never done it in my career, so why start now? … I’ll probably go to Florida. I train there a lot. I have a home there, so pretty close.”
