Former US Open champion Samantha Stosur is likely to miss the upcoming Wimbledon Championships due to a right hand injury.
According to Fox Sports Australia, the 33-year-old underwent a series of scans after the French Open. The results concluded that she has stress fractures in her right hand, the same hand she plays with. If she does withdraw from SW19, it will be the first time Stosur has missed a grand slam main draw since the 2008 Australian Open and the first time she has missed Wimbledon since 2002.
The Australian suffered the injury during her run at the French Open, where she lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko. Shortly after her loss, Stosur said the issue impacted on her performance against the Latvian 20-year-old.
“From 5-1 in that first set, it was just really, really painful and just, yeah, wasn’t going away. So yesterday I barely hit and just tried to manage it.” Said Stosur.
“And, yeah, just tried to get through and did everything I could, but she started playing pretty well as well, so it made life extra hard..
“It’s just every time I impact or grip my racquet, swing it on that side, it’s just been really, really sore.”
Stosur revealed she first started to experience pain in her hand during her third round clash against Bethanie Mattek Sands in Roland Garros and was unable to practice for the following match.
The injury issue is the latest setback to hinder Stosur. Currently ranked 34th in the world, she is at her lowest ranking position since 2009. Stosur has also lost her Australian No.1 place to Daria Gavrilova, who is currently ranked 24th. She was her country’s top player for 452 consecutive weeks.
This season Stosur has claimed one WTA title at the Strasburg Open, which was her first trophy of any kind since 2015. Overall, she has won 19 out of the 33 matches she has played this year.
