The season is really taking a toll on players’ fitness both in the ATP and WTA circuits.
Now we have another couple of bad casualties: Azarenka and Sharapova.
Azarenka
Vika had to retire from the Rogers Cup to a left knee injury in the middle of a match with Tamira Paszek. This made Azarenka to retire also from Cincinnati in order to try to be fit for the US Open.
“The last week took so much energy out of me that I had absolutely no time to recover, and my body is feeling it,” she said. “It was a little bit too quick of a transition for me to come and start the training, and I felt my knee just wasn’t in good shape. It’s unfortunate because I was really looking forward to playing here. I have really enjoyed being here. I tried yesterday and today it just got worse. I can’t see the point of continuing to play if I can’t give even 50% of my game.”
“I hope it’s a short-term thing. I have to just stop and take a little bit of time off because I had absolutely no rest for a long period of time. I just need to settle it down and go from there. Hopefully there’s nothing serious about it,” she added. “If I cannot play here, there is no chance for me to play anywhere else. My first goal is to get healthy and make sure I’m 100% ready to play the U.S. Open.”
Sharapova
Another casualty. Maria had to withdraw from Montreal because of a stomach flu. The strange thing is that she also retired from Cincinnati. This made people wonder if she has some other fitness problem. The Russian beauty confirmed that she aims at playing the US Open. Time will tell.
Let’s hope not to have other struggling players, but something may have to be revised in the schedules.
