Leg Injury Rules Maria Sharapova Out of the Western and Southern Open by Ros Satar

Written by: Staff on 18th August 2015

Leg Injury Rules Maria Sharapova Out of the Western and Southern Open by Ros Satar |

Maria Sharapova sealed a mad half hour in the evening in Cincinnati as first Venus Williams withdrew from the last night match of the schedule with a viral illness, before the World No. 2 came in to discuss the reasons for pulling out.

Sharapova has been dogged with leg injuries this year, with the one affecting her clay court season seeing her lose out on an attempt to capture a fourth Porsche in Stuttgart, and being edged out of defending her Madrid title in the semi-final.

She pulled out of the Toronto event, having trained post Wimbledon for the transition and run to the end of the year, but the extra time to try and get ready here was not enough.

She said: “I just didn’t have enough time really, you know. I have been practicing here the last few days and I’m just looking at the US Open in, you know, 11, 12 days.

“It’s a tough decision to make, but I think a wise one, in order to give myself the right amount of time to be as healthy as I can be for the Open, which I believe is very realistic, but I don’t know if it would be realistic if I did compete and start tomorrow.”

With injuries on both legs of the year, she was able to at least quip that there was a bit of balance, but in truth, she had to admit that perhaps the training block between the surfaces could have been better managed.

She said: “Quite honestly, I didn’t give myself a lot of rest days. I just took it easier than I did, because I thought with just a little bit of time and downtime and not a lot of movement it would get better.

“I was still training through it pretty much and doing a lot of intervals and getting in shape, so I think I just have to cut that down a little bit in the next, yeah, few days.”

Much like Williams, now Sharapova will need to draw on her considerable experience to pull her through the earlier rounds, coming in cold with players in those rounds possibly feeling like they would have nothing to lose.

“I think I will have to take it a match at a time and obviously can’t have too many expectations. I try [to dial expectations down]. I’m never good at that, but I do try. “

All eyes will now be on the Romanian, who played some great tennis last week to reach the Toronto final, but struggled to maintain her stamina in the final against Belinda Bencic. She will have to reach the final if Sharapova had lost her opening round to clinch the No. 2 spot once more, and with that the all-important US Open seeding.

Topics: Cincy Open, maria, Maria Sharapova, maria sharapova pulls out, Ros Satar, Sharapova, Tennis News, Venus Williams, Western and Southern Open

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10sBalls_com says:

August 18, 2015 at 11:41 pm

Leg Injury Rules @MariaSharapova Out of the @CincyTennis – http://t.co/jXV8szi0hA #tennis @MSharapova__ #Cincinnati @rfsatar #sharapova
breaktennisnews says:

August 19, 2015 at 12:31 am

RT @10sBalls_com: Leg Injury Rules @MariaSharapova Out of the @CincyTennis – http://t.co/jXV8szi0hA #tennis @MSharapova__ #Cincinnati @rfsa…