The curse of the WTA Wildcard as Wozniacki, Raducanu, Anisimova all dumped out from Madrid Open eight, only three remain

As was depicted last week, there was a lot of secrecy surrounding the Madrid Open wildcards with many of them then going to IMG backed players and in a pretty poor look for the tournament, only three remain after the first round. Those being three that perhaps weren’t expected to still be involved.

Emma Raducanu was dumped out by Maria Lourdes Carle in a pretty embarrassing defeat for the Brit 6-2, 6-2. Caroline Wozniacki faced Sara Errani in a battle of the tennis veterans, but lost out narrowly. While Amanda Anisimova who hasn’t gained much time on court no mind traction since the turn of the year also had a turnaround loss to Emiliana Arango. The Fruhvirtova sisters were roundly trounced in their opening ties.

Alexandra Eala, Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva and Robin Montgomery are the only three left going into todays second round. It stirs up another debate surrounding wildcards and those deserving. It has happened on both sides with Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in superb form on lower level tournaments not rewarded despite being Spanish and Roberto Bautista Agut on the comeback trail but not given the rewards. Both had to come through qualifying as a result. In a tournament owned by IMG, it seems they have been left red faced for picking their own stars instead of those perhaps more deserving. Step aside Netflix curse, the wildcard curse is coming through.

Read also

A systematic flaw with tennis? Madrid Open keep secrecy surrounding wildcards with lack of information hours before draw

Melanie Lautrup

@melanie_lautrup

·Follow

The three R1 survivors

296

Reply

Copy link

Read 19 replies