Slowly but surely, Maria Sharapova’s schedule for the 2017 season is rounding into form and taking shape.
The Russian has accepted a wild card into the Mutua Madrid Open, the tournament announced on Wednesday. The Premier event, which takes place from May 6-May 13—three weeks before the French Open—is played on clay.
“Sharapova requested an invitation to play in the tournament, and after considering it, we decided] to give her a wild card,” [tournament director Manolo Santana said. “Maria is one of the best players of the last 15 years, and also a past winner of our tournament. In Madrid, she always plays well, and I’m sure she will come back to the courts highly motivated and hoping to do well in her first tournaments.”
Sharapova won this tournament back in 2014, coming from a set down to beat Simona Halep in the final.
“Sharapova is one of those players that all tennis fans want to see,” tournament CEO and president Gerard Tsobanian said. “Her presence in the Caja Mágica is great news for the tournament, for the fans and also for the city of Madrid.”
In January, the former world No. 1 accepted an invitation to play the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, which will kick off on April 24 in Stuttgart.
Sharapova hasn’t played a tour-level match since the Australian Open in 2016. She was suspended two years by the International Tennis Federation in June for testing positive for meldonium, a banned substance. That suspension was later reduced to 15 months.