'WELL PLAYED KRISTINA'

Personally I am not a fan of Womens tennis. I am however now a fan of Kristina Mladenovic of France.
Over night in Stuttgart she bounced the 'cheat' out of the semi finals and maybe, just maybe she proved that Maria Sharapova is now a tennis player who cannot succeed without the substance that she relied on to take her to five Grand Slam titles.
Kristina Mladenovic has been rather vocal in her criticism of Sharapova since the Russian was banned for taking something that she apparently was told FIVE times to NOT take which Sharapova denies. Maria however does not deny that she failed to read an email sent to her by WADA ( World Anti- Doping Agency ) which in fact would have saved her from suspension.
The following is a transcript from Maria regarding the failure to read that particular email;
 "In order to be aware of this warning you had to open an email with a subject line having nothing to do with anti-doping, click on a web page, enter a password, enter a username, hunt, click, hunt, click, hunt, click, scroll and read," she wrote.
Well Maria my answer to that is simple; You probably have a paid gardener, a paid chauffer, a paid chef, a paid re- stringer, a paid house cleaner and a paid pool cleaner so why not pay someone to read your emails also as that would have saved you a whole lot of embarrassment ?!
Or would that have made way too much sense ? Too busy with your modelling assignments outside of your tennis practice sessions Maria ?
Anyhow back to my new favourite tennis player Kristina Mladenovic of France. Rather than describe just what Kristina thinks of Maria, here's a quote from her regarding the banning ;
"She's been taking this drug for 10 years and it's a serious drug. She has played with the rules and thought, if it's not banned, then I can take it.
"For me that's very disappointing. I don't like the mentality to be the best by playing with the rules."
So basically Kristina is saying that Maria knew that what she was taking could quite possibly bring the sport into disrepute, yet she kept taking it. The thing I find most disturbing about this is that Maria simply had to open an email, may have taken her five minutes of her precious time but if she had then she would go down in history as one of the best in Womens tennis, now she won't.
I find that amusing to say the least.
I wrote several posts on the ridiculous situation at the Australian Open in 2013 when the Prima Donna of tennis ( yes even more of a prima donna than Maria ) Victoria Azarenka took a ten minute time out for choking.
" I almost did the choke of the year", yep that's what Victoria said.
Yet the choker was allowed to take her ten minutes in the locker room and return to break Sloane Stephens serve and cheat her way into the final which she eventually won against Li Na.
Is it just me or is there a problem at the top of Womens tennis ?
On one side of the coin you have a player who is openly taking drugs to enhance their performance and who cannot even take a few minutes to read emails sent to her by a World Anti- Doping Agency because she lacks the intelligence to do so.
On the other side of the coin you have players such as Azarenka who resort to cheating to win titles and then of course you have players such as Serena Williams who threaten lines people ;
'If I could, I would take this ******* ball and shove it down your ******* throat,' she reportedly said. That was in the semis at the US Open against Clijsters in 2009 just before she was defaulted.
I also find that amusing.
Perhaps Mens tennis is a bit on the boring side compared to Womens tennis, nothing happening at the top of the Mens game, just feel good stories such as the come backs of Rafa and Roger.
Like the saying goes 'Nothing to see here, move along'......
Back to Mladenovic. The win against Sharapova means that Maria stays outside of the top 200 which is the cut off for the French Open qualifying event which commences next month.
The Officials in Paris have a decision to make whether or not to grant Maria a Wild Card into the main draw. Hopefully they will hand it to a player who deserves it.....
Over and out.