French Open: Mariya Sharapova leave tournament because shoulder injury
Maria Sharapova is a Russian professional tennis player. She is a resident of the United States since 1994. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having won silver in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Former French Open champion Maria Sharapova diverged from this year’s tournament due to her long-term shoulder problem
The 32-year-old champion has not played since pulling out of an event at the end of January and had an operation in February.
“I will miss competing at each of these tournaments, but it is important that I allow for proper rest and recovery in the upcoming weeks,” Sharapova said.
“Sometimes the right decisions aren’t always the easiest ones,” the five-time Grand Slam winner said.
French Open began on 26 May and run to 9 June this year.
“In better news, I have returned to the practice court, and slowly building the strength back in my shoulder,” she posted on her Instagram account, alongside a picture of her lifting the Roland Garros trophy in 2014.
Five-time champion Sharapova lost in the first round at Wimbledon and the fourth round at the U.S. Open.
The WTA said Sharapova expects to start her 2019 season at the Shenzhen Open, which begins on 31 December in the southeast China city.
In an exclusive interview, the Shenzhen Open Tournament Director Luiz Carvalho was asked if Maria Sharapova will play next year’s event in January to start her season like she already did in 2018 and 2019. “We do not know what her calendar is.”
Sharapova ranked 24 in the world, was the defending champion at Tianjin.
Sharapova won the French title in 2012 and 2014. She returned to the tour in April 2017 after a 15-month ban for taking the banned drug meldonium.
She achieved the French Open quarter-finals last year, losing 6–2, 6–1 to third seed Garbine Muguruza.
Maria Sharapova lost to Australia’s Ashleig Basly in the round of 16, in the opening Grand Slam of this year.
From 2003, Sharapova played a full season and managed to rise into the top 50 by the end of the year. She made her first story at both the Australian Open and the French Open but failed to win a match in either.
Sharapova entered the top 20 on the WTA world rankings as a result of reaching the third round of the Qatar Telecom German Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
At the latter event, she defeated a player ranked in the top 10 for the first time with a straight-sets win over world №10 and 2005 French Open finalist Elena Dementieva.
Maria Sharapova became the first Russian woman to hold the world №1 ranking on August 22, 2005.
After reaching the final, Sharapova became the world №1 again. She held it for seven weeks, surrendering it back to Henin after shoulder injury and fall from the top 5 in 2007
Sharapova played her first Olympics in the 2012 Summer Olimpic Games in London. In the quarterfinals, she defeated fellow former №1 Kim Glijsters and advanced to the semifinals, where she faced and defeated Maria Kirilenko to reach the Olympic final. In the final she lost to Serena Williams and won silver medal.
On June 8th, 2016 Maria Sharapova was banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation due to testing positive for meldonium.
