The struggles continue for Aryna Sabalenka (seeded number 3). The 26-year-old Belarusian withdrew from Wimbledon a few hours before her first-round match against American Emina Bektas, the tournament organizers announced. After a lower back injury at the start of the season and an illness that hampered her in the semi-finals of Roland-Garros, the Belarusian is suffering from shoulder problems, forcing her to retire early on the London grass.
“I’m not 100% because of a very specific injury, really very rare for a tennis player,” Sabalenka explained on Saturday. Doctors reportedly explained to her that she was “only the second or third tennis player to injure her (shoulder) muscle.”
