The door to next month's Olympic Games will remain barred to Wimbledon's newest champion Maria Sharapova, organisers said on Thursday.
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But despite becoming one of the sport's biggest drawcards virtually overnight, the teenager will not be allowed to compete at the world's greatest sporting extravaganza.
"It is a shame, I agree... but all the places have been allocated now," International Tennis Federation secretary General Debbie Jevans told Reuters on Thursday.
"The problem is being on a team that is so strong."
Russia's team, along with every other nation, was picked according to the world rankings on June 14, the cut-off date.
French Open champion Anastasia Myskina and runner-up Elena Dementieva were joined by Nadia Petrova and Svetlana Kuznetsova to make up the four-strong singles contingent.
Even if one of those players were to drop out between now and the beginning of the Games on August 13, Vera Zvonareva would take her place in the Russian team.
Zvonareva was ranked world number 14 to Sharapova's 15 on the cut-off date.
While Sharapova shook Wimbledon to its foundations with her powerful, refreshing game and amiable off-court personality, her compatriots failed to impress in the last Grand Slam before the Olympic Games.
Dementieva and Kuznetsova both suffered ignominious first-round defeats at the hands of little-known opponents.
Myskina struggled through to the third round while Zvonareva made it one better before falling to Lindsay Davenport -- Sharapova's semi-final victim.
"It is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) which selects the players," Jevans said. "And we have to have a cut-off date.
"The reason it was June 14 is that that was the closest date we could have to the Olympic deadline.
"Because we have world rankings in our sport, the NOCs have to base their selections on these.
"We do have wildcards, that's not the issue. The issue is that there is a maximum of four players from an individual country allowed in the Games. On the cut-off, there were four Russians ranked higher than Sharapova."
Sharapova, who moved to Nick Bollettieri's tennis camp in Florida as a seven-year-old a decade ago, is still fiercely proud of her heritage and nationality.
"Of course I am Russian," she said during her run to the Wimbledon crown last week. "I go back there, I have a house there... I am Russian."
Despite her keen sense of nationality, Sharapova is yet to represent Russia in Fed Cup -- the sport's inter-nation team tournament.
Last month she was left out of the team to face Argentina in the quarter-finals in Buenos Aires this weekend.
"We decided against inviting Sharapova because it would have been difficult for her to adapt to clay from grass in such a short time," team captain and Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpischev told Reuters at the time.
