Breaking news out of Flushing Meadows as Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the US Open due a right leg injury. The world number three has not played during the North American hard court swing with a nagging injury forcing her to withdraw from Toronto at the Rogers Cup and the Western & Southern Open. Sharapova has said she will return in a few weeks for the Asian swing.
She was set to face Australian Daria Gavrilova in the first round. Lucky loser Daria Kasatkina will take Sharapova’s place in the main draw.
Sharapova’s difficult summer
The summer really begins with the grass season, but for Sharapova, she was looking forward to defending her French Open title. However, her run for back-to-back titles on the Parisian clay was much shorter than expected as she was taken out by Lucie Safarova in straight sets in the fourth round in Paris.
After not playing a warm-up grass court event, the Russian headed straight to the All England Club to kickoff her Wimbledon campaign. After some pretty straightforward wins in her first four rounds, she finally ran into some trouble in the quarterfinals when she met American Coco Vandeweghe. Sharapova, who isn’t the best returner, had difficulty dealing with the pace and direction that Vandeweghe offered. The American forced a third after taking a second set tiebreaker, but the experience of Sharapova helped her in the end to take the match. She would lose to Serena Williams in the semifinals.
Since Wimbledon, Sharapova has been missing in action. Before the Rogers Cup, she announced her withdrawal from the event. In Cincinnati, she was in the main draw before announcing that the leg injury, which had hampered her post-Wimbledon, was still bothering her before she faced off against Varvara Lepchenko of the United States for their second round match.
What does this mean for the draw
With her withdrawal, this section becomes even more wide open than ever now. With the likes of Elina Svitolina, Ekaterina Makarova, Carla Suarez Navarro, Eugenie Bouchard, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, and Svetlana Kuznetsova this section is now up for the taking with anyone of these women capable of getting to the semifinals through this section. Makarova is the slight favorite to make it though due to her impeccable consistency to play well in Grand Slam events.