Ana Ivanovic won the Rogers Cup tournament four years ago but her recent poor form hasn’t impressed anyone. She has been denied a wild card into the Canadian event. Tournament director Eugene Lapierre has said that Ivanovic will have to go through qualifiers to get a position in the main draw.
After losing the first round of Wimbledon, Ivanovic’s ranking has plummeted from 45 to 64. Instead the wild card went to Stéphanie Dubois the Canadian number two. It is an interesting decision given that Serena Williams and Justine Henin, two big draw cards have been forced to withdraw with injury. That leaves Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams as the biggest names – Williams also recently struggling with her form. Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic are also likely to play but both have had issues with injuries and one would’ve thought the tournament could use a little help from Ivanovic, but they have to be applauded for giving their juniors a chance, which is exactly what the wild card are for, not sparking the careers of fallen stars.
“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 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.”
