Aryna Sabalenka, Victoria Azarenka withdraw from Wimbledon with shoulder injuries

On Saturday, after retiring from a tour-level match for the first time in her career, two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka said she wasn’t fully recovered to play Wimbledon.

“We're doing everything we can with my team to make sure I'll be able to play my first match here,” she told press on media day, but admitted that “I'm not 100 percent ready.”

On Monday, after cutting a practice short—and with her coach shaking his head and saying “no,” reported ESPN—Sabalenka did what many suspected: she pulled out of the tournament.

“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not cooperating,” Sabalenka wrote on her Instagram Story. “I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse.”

Later in the day, Sabalenka's countrywoman Victoria Azarenka also withdrew from Wimbledon with a shoulder injury. This two-time Australian Open champion was scheduled to play Sloane Stephens.

Sabalenka, the No. 3 seed, was in No. 2 seed Coco Gauff's half of the draw, and was scheduled to face Emina Betkas second on No. 1 Court. She was replaced in the draw by Lucky Loser Erika Andreeva, sister of Mirra Andreeva. Sabalenka defeated Erika in the first round of Roland Garros before falling to Mirra in the quarterfinals, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4.

Sabalenka completed one match at the Berlin grass-court tune-up, beating Daria Kasatkina, 6-1, 6-4. But she was unable to finish her subsequent match against Anna Kalinskaya, pulling out after trailing 5-1.

When asked about the discomfort she is coping with, the 26-year-old pointed to the teres major muscle, and described the challenge of working through it.

“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,” Sabalenka said.

“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.”

Sabalenka said she still had “hopes” of playing, but it was clear after Monday's truncated hitting session that her 2024 Wimbledon wouldn't get off the ground. She has now played the tournament just twice since 2019, but has reached the semifinals both times.

“This tournament means so much to me,” wrote Sabalenka, “and I promise I'll be back stronger than ever next year.”