Interview: Sharapova defends unpopular Open schedule

Maria Sharapova is backing beleaguered Australian Open organisers who continue to stage the season's opening grand slam over the last two weeks of January.

Top professionals, including Melbourne Park champions Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo, have been blaming the mounting number of injuries suffered by players since the New Year on the intense build-up to next week's tournament.

But with the annual debate over pushing the tournament back to March once again in full flow, U.S. Open champion Sharapova is refusing to get carried away.

"Every grand slam has its advantages and disadvantages and the heat in Australia is definitely one of those," the Russian, top seed in Melbourne, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"It's been held at this time of year for so many years, it's kind of hard to say you're going to move one of the biggest tournaments of the year and put it in the middle of the calendar because there are lot of other tournaments (that would be affected)."


Sharapova's compatriots Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova along with men's world number two Rafael Nadal, Argentine David Nalbandian and local hope Lleyton Hewitt are among those who have withdrawn from tournaments this week.

But Sharapova pointed out that athletes should be aware what they are getting themselves into when they sign up for the Open.

"Unfortunately you do get some bad injuries, but that's the way it goes," said Sharapova, who is the face of the "Beat the Heat" campaign, a global crusade to highlight the dangers of dehydration and heat illness among active children.

"You definitely want to play in better conditions, so if (there was) less heat, I'd definitely agree with that.

"But it's not easy taking a tournament out and putting it somewhere else in the schedule. It's really hard to do."

Sharapova also pointed out that the WTA tour had already made moves in the right direction.

The Roadmap 2010 reforms were launched in November in response to a rise in player withdrawals from events because of injury and fatigue.

The new proposals mean top players can play in fewer tournaments and have longer breaks after grand slam events, with the season also ending in October.

"With the structured plan that the tour has been working on, I think things are being addressed but I don't think you can do very much with this tournament."