Serena Williams Withdraws from Roland Garros Due to Muscular Injury
American tennis player Serena Williams announced that she is withdrawing from Roland Garros before her match against Russian Maria Sharapova due to a pectoral muscle problem that prevents her from serving as she desires.
"I have a pectoral problem that worsens and prevents me from serving. It's impossible to play like this," said the 36-year-old three-time winner in Paris.
Sharapova, a two-time winner of Roland Garros, advances to the Quarterfinals without playing, where she will face the winner of the match between Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, the third favorite, and Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.
Williams' withdrawal deprives the tournament of one of the star matches of the day between two veterans of the circuit.
The American, winner of 23 Grand Slam titles, had even been hyping up the match with her statements. Serena, who has won 19 of the 21 matches between them, will not appear in this one.
Resurrected from the rankings after a long absence following the birth of her child last September, Williams said she began to feel discomfort after her last individual match on Saturday, when she defeated Germany's Julia Georges in two sets.
Despite this, she decided to play a doubles match yesterday, Sunday, alongside her sister Venus, and that's when she realized the problem was getting worse.
"I wanted to see how the injury was progressing, how I felt. I tried different bandages and remedies to see if I could keep going. I had never had this kind of pain before and I don't know how to deal with it," she said.
But things didn't improve and she preferred not to aggravate the injury in order to recover for future tournaments.
"I promised my coach that if I wasn't at 60%, I would withdraw. And if I can't serve, which is my best weapon, there's not much I can do," she said.
"I'm very disappointed. I've made many sacrifices to be here, it has been hard for me to be away from my daughter and now I have to withdraw," she said.
She also expressed regret for not being able to face Sharapova, whom she described as "a special rival. I was improving my tennis with each match here, so I had good expectations," she said.