Ana Ivanovic of Serbia reacts to a line call while playing against Gisela Dulko of Argentina in their women's singles second round match on day four of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 21, 2010. The first Grand Slam of the 2010 tennis season is taking place in the Australian city January 18-31.FINDLAY KEMBER/AFP / Getty Images
The organizers of the Rogers Cup in Montreal have lost their gamble as regards Ana Ivanovic playing next week's event.
It was announced on Wednesday that the three wild cards are being given to Quebec players after Ivanovic refused the offer of one for the main draw.
Ranked No. 62, the Serb was outside the original cut-off for the event and had requested a wild card last month. But she was turned down because tournament director Eugene Lapierre was concerned that local attraction Stéphanie Dubois of nearby Laval, Que., might slip in the rankings and require the wild card given to Ivanovic.
Explaining her decision on her official website, an obviously upset Ivanovic cited remarks that Lapierre made to a Montreal newspaper. "I would have loved to have played in Montreal but I was quite hurt by the comments of Mr. Lapierre," she wrote. "I don't think they were necessary, and they contradicted everything he had told my management previously: that I was not getting a wild card because I am not Canadian.
"The fact that my original request was turned down isn't really an issue: I would have been happy to play qualifying, but I felt that they kind of stepped over the line with this interview, making public our correspondence and even misrepresenting it. Unfortunately I don't feel welcome at this tournament."
She was referring to comments by Lapierre that she was not playing well enough to deserve a main-draw wild card.
The champion in Montreal in 2006 and the top seed there in 2008, Ivanovic has accepted a wild card into the WTA Tour tournament in the New Haven, Conn., in two weeks, the week preceding the US Open.
On Wednesday, a resurgent Ivanovic, 22, reached the third round of the tour event in Cincinnati with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Yaroslava Shvedova.
Announced as the Rogers Cup wild cards were Dubois, Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville and Valérie Tétreault of St. Jean-sur-Richelieu.