Two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has pulled out of Wimbledon after recently casting doubt on her participation in the tournament.
The world No.3 has withdrawn from the tournament due to a shoulder injury, according to an official statement from the AELTC. Sabalenka would have been a title contender in the tournament after reaching the quarter-finals or better at the last seven Grand Slam tournaments.
“I’m heartbroken to tell you all that I won’t be able to play the Championships this year,” Sabalenka said in a statement posted on social media.
“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not cooperating. I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things worse.
“This tournament means so much to me and I promise I’ll be back stronger.”
Over the weekend, the 26-year-old admitted to reporters that she was ‘not 100 percent fit’ and was struggling with a shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw from her match against Anna Kalinskaya at the Berlin Open in Germany. She later added that there was a ‘chance’ that she wouldn’t be playing.
“It’s teres major,” she said of her physical issue. “I call it just shoulder injury. It’s really a specific injury, and it’s really a rare one. Probably I’m just the second or the third tennis player who injured that muscle. [It’s] a very frustrating one. The most annoying thing is that I can do anything. I can practice, I can hit my groundstrokes. I’m struggling with serving. That’s really annoying.
“You don’t feel like you’re injured. If you give me some weights, I’m going to go lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain. We did an MRI, we did everything. We did a lot of rehab, a lot of treatments.”
Sabalenka has now missed Wimbledon in three out of the past five years. However, the tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to COVID-19 and in 2022 she was unable to play because of the decision to ban Russian and Belarussian players.
She will be replaced in the draw by lucky loser Erika Andrea, who will play Emma Betkas in the first round on Monday.
