Brisbane International Tennis - Australian Open Series

Sharapova forced to withdraw

brisbaneinternational.com.au with AAP Tuesday 1 January 2013 17 Comments »

UPDATE 2.55pm: Second seed Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the Brisbane International citing an ongoing right collarbone injury.

Sharapova had initially played down concerns over her availability in Brisbane after pulling out of a recent exhibition tournament in South Korea due to a neck concern.

But the reigning French Open champion pulled the pin on the Brisbane International for the second time after the right collarbone problem restricted her on the practice court.

“I had a bit of inflammation in my collarbone, and I sent it to my doctor in New York and he told me I couldn’t really do much overhead training for about a week.  That week was actually on Monday,” Sharapova said.

“So to be fair, I haven’t really given myself a chance to pretty much hit any serves or anything over my head.  Just been practicing groundstrokes.  So I just kind of ran out of time here.

“I started practicing once I got here but couldn’t serve much ‑  actually at all until yesterday.

“Just a couple days of serving is not really enough to go out tomorrow and compete at a high level, which is unfortunate.  I tried to give myself a chance, like I said, I just ran out of time a little bit.”

Tournament director Cameron Pearson released a statement with Sharapova a sufficient recovery to take the court for the Australian Open.

“We feel for Maria because we saw first-hand how badly she wanted to play for the people of Brisbane,” he said. “She has been fantastic since she got here and worked hard in the gym, on court and in the medical room to do everything she could to get herself right. Unfortunately she didn’t make it.”

She is replaced in the draw by lucky loser Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, who will meet Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova in the second round.

Tags: Maria Sharapova

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