Injured Aryna Sabalenka withdraws from Wimbledon

LONDON: Aryna Sabalenka has withdrawn from the Wimbledon tennis championships due to a shoulder injury. The world No.3’s decision to pullout opened up an already wide-open women’s singles draw.

The strapping Belarusian, a two-time semifinalist here, had hinted she may not be able to start the tournament during her pre-championship media engagement on Saturday.

Sabalenka, who has been replaced by lucky loser Erika Andreeva in the draw, took to social media to say she’s heart-broken to pull out of the tournament.

“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 much worse,” said Sabalenka, who practiced early on Monday.

Sabalenka, who retired from her Berlin quarterfinal against Anna Kalinskaya due to the shoulder injury over a week ago, told the press that she wasn’t 100 percent fit and the injury was to the teres major muscle.

“The most annoying thing is that I can do anything -- I can practice, I can hit my groundstrokes,” she said. “I'm struggling with serving. You don't feel like you're injured. If you give me weights, I'm going to lift weights. But if you tell me to serve, I'm going through pain.”