Majority of fans choose Romania’s Halep as tennis player of May, but WTA goes with Sharapova

An overwhelming majority of fans chose Romania’s tennnis star Simona Halep as the player of May via a poll organized by the the Women’s Tennis Association, but the WTA decided to give the award to Russian player Maria Sharapova, who only got 4 percent of the public votes. Despite her popularity among fans who were called to help WTA decide on the best player of the month, with 291,000 votes for Halep out of a total of 305,000 cast in the poll, the Romanian again lost to the Russian. The two last met during the Roland Garros final, won by Sharapova, in one of the longest and toughest finals of the tournament. The WTA says it chose Sharapova for the May tennis player award for winning two of the game's biggest titles, first, the Mutua Madrid Open and then Roland Garros. Sharapova was also the WTA player of the month in April. The third contestant in WTA’s informal May ranking was Serena Williams, who is number 1 WTA and who got only 1 percent of the votes. Sharapova herself only received 4 percent of the votes. Simona Halep ranks 3rd WTA, ahead of Sharapova, who is at number 5. The Romanian has won international support after a well played final against Sharapova at the French Open, a match which lasted for around three hours, and which was two minutes short of being the longest final in the history of the Roland Garros Tournament. It was the toughest Grand Slam final in the Russia's career, she admitted after winning the match. Some international media outlets argued that Sharapova's yelling and the sometimes long period before serves, as well as the ten-minute break to the lockers to change her dress were among factors which helped the experienced, 27-year old her win the final against the 22-year old Halep. editor@romania-insider.com