Aryna Sabalenka pulls out of Wimbledon with shoulder injury

Aryna Sabalenka has withdrawn from this year’s Wimbledon Championships because of a shoulder injury.

The current world No 3 had previously said that she was struggling with a right-shoulder injury, and she faced a race to be fit in time for Wimbledon.

“It’s a very frustrating one,” she told media on Saturday.

“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.

“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.”

But today, Sabalenka has officially withdrawn from the tournament just hours before her first-round match against Bektas.

Writing on social media, the Belarusian said she was “heartbroken” at having to withdraw.

She will be replaced by Russian lucky loser Erika Andreeva.

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