French Open director Guy Forget has said he was under no pressure to award a wildcard entry to two-times champion Maria Sharapova who returned to action last month following a 15-month doping ban.
The 30-year-old Russian was widely expected to be fast-tracked into the year’s second grand slam but tournament organisers took the unexpected decision to deny her entry.
With Sharapova opting to play qualifiers instead of requesting a wildcard at Wimbledon, Forget believes she is ready to move on.
“I think she’s an honest person, she made a mistake and she paid dearly for it and wants to forget about it now,” Forget told Eurosport.
“And I think the fact that in Wimbledon…she will play the qualifying, I think it is a very smart way of saying, ‘listen that’s the past now and I want to move on, I don’t want to think about it’.”