WIMBLEDON, England (AP) 鈥� Third-seeded Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from Wimbledon on Monday because of an injured shoulder.
The two-time Australian Open champion was supposed to play Emina Bektas of the United States in the first round on Day 1 at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.
Sabalenka, a semifinalist at the All England Club each of the last two times she appeared there, was replaced in the draw on Monday by Erika Andreeva, who lost in qualifying last week.
A little more than a week ago, Sabalenka stopped playing during the first set of her quarterfinal at the Berlin Ladies Open, citing pain in her shoulder.
She said she had a muscle injury that she called 鈥渧ery frustrating.鈥�
鈥淭he most annoying thing is that I can do anything. I can practice; I can hit my groundstrokes. I鈥檓 struggling with serving. That鈥檚 really annoying. You don鈥檛 feel like you鈥檙e injured,鈥� Sabalenka said. 鈥淚f you give me some weights, I鈥檓 going to go lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I鈥檓 going to go through pain. We did an MRI, we did everything. We did a lot of rehab, a lot of treatments and everything.鈥�
Sabalenka said on Saturday there was a chance she would need to pull out of Wimbledon, 鈥淏ut I still have my hopes. As someone who been fighting through a lot of different pains in the past months, I still have my hopes.鈥�
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AP tennis:
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
