Maria Sharapova will face Italian veteran Roberta Vinci in her return to tennis next week in Stuttgart following a doping ban.
Sharapova, who has been sidelined for 15 months following a positive test for meldonium, will face Vinci on Wednesday.
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, an event Sharapova has won three times, awarded a main-draw wildcard to the Russian.
The tournament streamed its draw ceremony live on its website, and murmurs went up when Sharapova’s name was drawn on line 13 of the 28-player field.
Vinci’s name was then drawn out of the bowl to face her; this will be their third meeting and first since 2012.
Sharapova leads the head-to-head 2-0.
Should she win, Sharapova faces a possible second-round meeting with No.7 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who plays Ekaterina Makarova first up.
Radwanska recently told Polish press that she was opposed to the idea of Sharapova receiving a wildcard into next month’s French Open.
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