Tennis star airs wild conspiracy theory after being denied place at the Australian Open despite being the No 1 in her country: ‘They just don’t like me’

Arina Rodionova has spoken out on Tennis Australia, claiming a personal vendetta cost her a wildcard to her home grand slam, despite being the top-ranked women’s player in the country.

Rodionova suffered a first-round defeat in qualifying for the Australian Open on Tuesday and then accused the governing body of causing unnecessary stress on players – and not just her – by not being transparent and allowing the wild cards earlier to know.

The 34-year-old battled back from a serious wrist injury to dominate the lower-level ITF Tour in 2023, winning 78 matches en route to seven titles as her ranking rose from No. 302 to the edge of the top 100.

But her hard-earned return to Australian No. 1 status counted for nothing when TA handed their fifth and final discretionary wildcard to Russian-born player Daria Saville last Friday.

“The only thing I regret today is that I gave Tennis Australia something to celebrate,” Rodionova said after her 6-3 6-4 defeat to lower-ranked Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean.

Australia’s number 1 among women did not receive a wildcard entry to the Australian Open

“I think they are very happy with my result today and that makes me angry.”

Despite being the only Australian to reach the second round at Wimbledon in 2017 in the proud tennis nation’s worst performance at the All England Club since World War II, Rodionova believes she has been an outcast for TA for more than a decade.

“It started years ago,” the Victorian said.

“So many things and examples have happened between me and people in charge of, for example, the head of women’s tennis and other people in Tennis Australia.

‘There were so many things going on behind the scenes that it is very clear to me that I am not liked.

“And it’s not just clear to me, it’s clear to every Australian tennis player and everyone.

“It’s not exactly a secret, everyone knows it and now it’s funny that by making this decision they’ve decided to make it public as well.”

Rodionova has risen to career-best No. 105 in the world, but was No. 112 at the time the Open main draw concluded.

Ironically, after beating recent top-20 star Martina Trevisan at the Brisbane International last week, Rodionova ousted former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who will play Saville in Hobart on Wednesday.

“I don’t even know how to justify the reasoning behind it,” Rodionova said.

‘I’ve had a great year. I did everything I could to earn it. They just don’t like me.’

Rejecting the wild card also cost Rodionova at least $94,000 – and much more if she had made an Open run.

But the veteran baseliner insists ‘it’s not about the money’ despite admitting the stress of the situation left her reeling on Tuesday.

“It’s more about the opportunities,” Rodionova said.

“I would love to play somewhere else, in Hobart or Adelaide (this week), and it’s not even about that.

“I didn’t really have a problem with them not giving it to me. The bigger problem was that they left it for so long and pretended to watch the results in Brisbane.

‘I had the best result there (among the Australian women), so I don’t think they were looking at that. The decision has probably already been made before.

‘They didn’t want to give it to me, and they should have announced it a long time ago because it was causing so much unnecessary stress for myself.

‘Also for Dasha (Saville). I talked to her, she was clearly thinking about it too, and to everyone else: there’s so much more to it, like all the unnecessary conversations, all the drama, and that should never happen.

The 34-year-old claims she was denied a place because officials ‘just don’t like me’

‘Last year the same thing happened to other girls. They waited until the last minute and the girls found out on social media.

“It’s disrespectful to players… they should tell us a month earlier.”

The retiring John Millman showed there was no place for sentiment and was also overlooked for a wildcard despite being the only Australian this century to beat Roger Federer at a grand slam.

But even Millman was more upset about Rodionova’s brushing.

“You can’t be Australia’s top-ranked player in women’s tennis and be overlooked,” he told the ABC.

“Not to mention she won 78 games last year. She went there and showed an incredible drive to work hard and win games, and she did it the hard way.

“I’m a little baffled – and I’m not going to sit on the fence with that.”