LESS than a month after being the toast of Paris by winning the French Open, Svetlana Kuznetsova has had to get used to life a little further away from centrestage at Wimbledon.

The Russian is not the only one raising eyebrows at the puzzling court schedule for matches involving top players, with compatriot and world No. 1 Dinara Safina less than happy.

Fifth seed Kuznetsova, yet to play a match on The All England Club's 15,000-seater Centre Court in this year's tournament, had to make do with the much smaller 2,200-seater Court Three for her second round match on Thursday.

But she was not alone in her demotion from the limelight, with top seed Safina and five-time champion Venus Williams also failing to make it on to the Centre Court order of play.

A somewhat surprised Safina said: 'Hopefully, next match I'll play on a bigger court. Of course, it's not fair.'

Ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki's 6-0, 6-4 defeat of unseeded opponent Maria Kirilenko was the only women's match to feature on the main show court for Thursday's second-round matches.

'I'm fine to be wherever they want to put me. They don't have to put me on Centre Court,' Kuznetsova said.

'But if you look at the schedule, it's not about only me.

'Dinara plays on Court Two, Venus plays on Court 1, and girls who are not very highly seeded play Centre,' she said, adding she was surprised by the scheduling.

The All England Club said scheduling matches was a complex operation involving many factors.

'On the show courts in particular every effort is made to provide balanced competitive matches. Potentially one-sided matches are avoided,' the club said in a statement.

'Exciting players with great crowd appeal naturally tend to get the main share of Centre Court,' it added.

The Russians are not the first players to question court selections at Wimbledon.

Swipe

Last year second seed Jelena Jankovic took a swipe at the organisers for making her play her fourth-round match 'almost in the parking lot'.

'I almost need a helicopter to go to my court,' said the Serb after she was not given a Centre or Court One billing.

The curious scheduling was set to continue yesterday, with Serena Williams, who has also questioned court choice in previous years, scheduled to play on Court Two.

That is despite eighth seed Victoria Azarenka and her 28th-seeded opponent Sorana Cirstea being tabled for Centre Court.

'At Wimbledon you have to expect anything,' Kuznetsova said laughing.

'That's why I like it, because it's unpredictable.'