More bad news for the MIA Maria Sharapova.
The 3-time Grand Slammer, who's been forced out of action since last August with a balky right shoulder, has withdrawn from next week's Paris Open and Dubai the following week after failing to fully recover, tournament officials confirmed.
This announcement is murky at best but it could mean a few things: either her shoulder is still tender from surgery, her overall competitive fitness still needs a lot of work, or, worst case scenario, it's been reinjured.
In any case, the Shrieka camp must be seriously worried about her long-term prospects considering this is her dominant side.
The WTA Tour desperately needs her back in the fold so this is very troubling news.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Shrieka finally released a statement about the withdrawal via her website -I'm very disappointed to be unable to compete in the upcoming Open GDF SUEZ and Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, both of which are great events that I was very much hoping to be able to play. My shoulder continues to improve every day and I am working very hard on the practice court. I'm looking forward to being back on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour very soon.
(image via Getty)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
(UPDATED) THE LOW DOWN: Shrieka withdraws from Paris + Dubai, officials cite "failure to fully recover" from shoulder injury
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I don't like her, but that's awful news for her. I keep wondering why she didn't go to that surgeon in Alabama that all the professional athletes go to (can't think of his name right now.) Well, ifs and buts, right? I hope she's able to heal and fully recover somehow.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a lot speculation on tennisforum about this already and a lot of people agree, that she probably didn't really intend to play there since she decided to drop out of the OZ Open.
ReplyDeleteReally, it wouldn't make all that much sense for her to fly all the way over to France just to test out her form and possibly suffer an early exit. Instead she's probably waiting until the big tourneys Indian Wells and Miami, tournaments where she's always felt comfortable, to stage her comeback.
But what is really strange about this whole thing is that there is absolutely nothing coming from her camp.
The Paris Open has been hyping the sh!t out of the claim that she would come back next week ($$$), but Maria (her camp) never really confirmed it and now that she withdrew again there is nothing from her camp. Sound somewhat fishy to me...
But all this aside I have to say the tour is desperately needing her right now!
Just today I read that Safina has a 75%-80% chance to get the No.1 ranking in the next few months and then again we would have a Slam-less top player who everybody is gonna bash.
After Justine, Maria, Ana, Jelena & Serena that would be the 6th No.1 within little less than a year!
I had read that post on the tennisforum but I hadn't seen anything "official" on her website which is a daily read of course nor from a major news outlet.
ReplyDeleteI guess it could make sense she didn't want to fly all the way over there for those smaller tourneys because she might run into a top baller sooner than at Indian Wells + Miami with much bigger draws.
Looking at her 2008 sched, she didn't play Paris but won in Doha, played Indian Wells (semis) but skipped Miami. Maybe it'll all balance out for her in any case.
I wonder, how far will her ranking drop before she returns?
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ReplyDeletelike maja, i think maria is just waiting for the right time (tournament) to stage her comeback. but i really worry about this injury, hopefully it doesn't end her career. this shoulder injury happened when she was about, imo, to reach the peak of her performance. it must've been frustrating for her.
ReplyDelete-kelsey
I wonder if she's going to fully recover from this. I know she'll come back but will she still compete at the same level? A lot of players never fully come back from major injuries.
ReplyDelete-Lisa
ok i'm really worried about her. She's my favorite wta baller(after the Williams sisters of cos).
ReplyDeleteWTA needs her really bad.I mean who wouldn't miss matches between Sharapova and the WS..high in drama and of cos quality. The only worthy players left in the absence of Justine.
Come back Maria. We miss ya :-(
anon 7:32 - because what you're doing is called spamming...it has nothing to do with the post and you're just putting links to promote that site.
ReplyDeleteyou can't promote on other blogs without the permission of the person who writes them.
wta needs maria, we need maria... I hope she will be back soon. Like my son said when watching the AUS O. : without maria there is less drama, less fun, less attitude and less nike but especially less beautiful tennis.
ReplyDeletemaybe some good news from little belgium for the wta : Kim & Justine are getting fit again. They will play some exhibition matches in the next months in Belgium. They told the belgian media that they don't plan a WTA comeback but we never know...
This is vey worrying. Hopefully she can recover from this. I agree with the other posters, the WTA needs her.
ReplyDeleteShe and the Williams sisters are the only possible dominators left on the tour since Justine retired.
Get well soon Masha!