All tournaments have wildcards for the organisers to do as they want with. That's known and understood by players way before a tournament deadline is reached. If a slam is 128 draw and the top 100 qualify by right, players know where they need to be to secure a slot, and are aware that outside that ranking they will be in qualifiers at best. Organisers can do what they want with them, and primarily it's either to help develop home talent or to invite "big name" players who will enhance the tournament and increase attendance.

By nature of her past results, personality and media coverage (and I totally agree this will be orchestrated by her mgmt team) she does tick those boxes. Compared to the other names Ali mentioned she certainly is a draw.

I somewhat doubt other players are livid. Laura didn't take a place away from them, they didn't do enough to qualify. If it hadn't been Laura it would probably have been a US jnr ranked below Laura or another player who would have qualified once upon a time but is no longer there on ranking either.

If you want to object to wildcards in general that's a whole other debate (and one that has been done to death on here previously) but allocating one to Laura, I have no problem with that. I actually think this is one of the few she has been awarded that is actually in her interest to accept.