Wimbledon favourite casts doubt over playing after explaining extent of 'rare' injury
Aryna Sabalenka revealed that she was still injured ahead of her opening match at Wimbledon.
Aryna Sabalenka has confessed that there is a chance that she won’t take to the court for her first-round match at Wimbledon on Monday.
The world No. 3 is a two-time semi-finalist at SW19 and started the year by winning the Australian Open.
But a rare shoulder injury could ruin her hopes of winning her third Grand Slam title and first at the All England Club.
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Sabalenka retired from her quarter-final match at last week’s Berlin Open after just six games. Speaking at Wimbledon on Saturday, she revealed that she still hadn’t physically recovered.
“No, I'm not 100 per cent fit now. We're doing everything we can with my team to make sure I'll be able to play my first match here,” the Belarusian said.
Although Sabalenka is holding onto hope, she could be forced to pull out of Wimbledon before taking to the court. The world No. 3 is due to face Emina Bektas in the first round on Monday.
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“There is always a chance, yeah,” she admitted when asked if she might not play on day one of The Championships.
Sabalenka also cast doubts as she claimed she didn’t want to jeopardise the rest of her season. Quizzed over whether she could return to her best as the tournament went on, she replied: “Well, I would say that's something I have to figure out right now. If I'll not figure out that, then I can only make things worse. I don't want that. I don't want to risk the rest of the season.
“So, yeah, we're doing our best. As competitors, we're not going to give up that easily. The last week, we've been really lots of different things we've been trying. Yeah, I have another day, another day and a half, to try some more stuff and see where I am. I still have my hopes.”
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Barely any players have suffered from the same injury and Sabalenka explained that it was affecting her serve. She continued: “It's teres major. Like shoulder. For someone who doesn't speak very well English, 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.
“Yeah, that'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 and everything. But 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.”
