winning the title aged 37<\/a>, she successfully navigated back-to-back matches on Sunday to make it through to the main draw.<\/p>\n\u201cI was pretty sure to get a wildcard, or I was hoping to get a wildcard, because I did it [win] last year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was not like five years ago, it was last year. To come back like a champion, I hoped, and I thought, I would get a wildcard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised when I got the message of [tournament director] Laura Robson saying all the wildcards would go to the British players, which I understand, of course, but as a champion, it\u2019s tough for me [to accept]. With respect for me, I thought I deserved a wildcard.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to respect the player in general. It is something that should be normal. If you are champion of an event and you don\u2019t get in the year after, I think automatically this should be considered. It\u2019s something out of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria\u2019s victory provided a remarkable denouement to the return of women\u2019s tennis to Queen\u2019s for the first time in 52 years. Watched courtside by her two daughters, she embarked on a giant-killing run, defeating four top-20 opponents in a row to become the oldest WTA 500 champion in history. Incredibly, her triumph followed a nine-match losing streak heading into the tournament.<\/p>\n
Her picture now hangs on the wall of an elite club that granted her honorary lifetime membership after her triumph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response from everybody around was really huge when they knew I didn\u2019t get the wildcard,\u201d said Maria. \u201cA lot of members here came to me and said: \u2018Really, we don\u2019t understand why you didn\u2019t get the wildcard.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it was super nice, from members, from players and from journalists, all around the world I got a lot of positive feedback. I was surprised about it and I was really happy that everybody said something to try to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria currently sits 52nd in the world rankings, 34 places higher than last year, but not sufficient to earn direct entry to the tournament. This year\u2019s wildcards were granted to British quartet Katie Boulter (world No 73), Fran Jones (world No 98), Harriet Dart (world No 160), and Mika Stojsavljevic (world No 261).<\/p>\n
An LTA spokesperson said: \u201cThe LTA owns and invests in staging these events for the benefit of the British game as a whole \u2013 so fans can see world-class international players from around the world, and support our British players, but also so British players are afforded the playing opportunities to progress their careers and climb the rankings.<\/p>\n
Tatjana Maria celebrates with the trophy after her unlikely win at Queen\u2019s last year. Photograph: Shaun Brooks\/CameraSport<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen British success at these events, and breakthrough wins, so there is clear value in giving British players these development opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having come through her two qualifying matches, Maria will face the Greek former world No 3 Maria Sakkari in the first round, hoping that Sunday\u2019s gruelling exertions might play in her favour.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday was tough playing two matches in one day, especially on grass,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it gives you time on the grass, because players at the beginning have not so much practice time on the grass courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for me to have the two matches in my bag and to practise on the grass to get the feeling better. I hope it\u2019s going to help for the next matches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tatjana Maria, the reigning Queen\u2019s Club women\u2019s champion, has revealed her shock at not receiving a wildcard to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-259250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}