Defending Champion Sakkari Forced To Withdraw From Guadalajara Open

Maria Sakkari won the biggest trophy of her career at last year's Guadalajara Open, but the Greek player won't be back this year to defend it.

It's been a challenging year for Sakkari, who had a decent season last year overall. She won 38 matches in total, including the Guadalajara Open trophy, ending the season as the World No. 9.

This year, things haven't been as good for her, and while the score of 25 wins at this stage of the year doesn't look terrible, she likely won't hit the 38 she had last year.

She didn't win any trophies, either, even though she made the finals at the Indian Wells Open. Her ranking has also stayed relatively stable, as she's still ranked number 9, but that will change dramatically after the following week.

After her withdrawal from the 2024 Guadalajara Open, the Greek player is expected to drop out of the Top 10 but stay in the Top 20 of the WTA Rankings as a result of losing her points earned last year in Mexico.

She would lose points anyway because the event was demoted in status. It was a WTA 1000 tournament last year when Sakkari won it, but it's only a WTA 500 event this year, which means that even if she defended her trophy, she would have dropped half of her points from last year.

However, as a result of her withdrawal, she will lose all of her points because she won't play at the event. The reason is a shoulder injury. Sakkari missed the entirety of the preparation for the US Open but returned at the US Open, but it wasn't a very fruitful return.

She wasn't able to play her best tennis and was losing to Yafan Wang when she retired from the match. That shoulder injury still gives her problems, so she won't play in Mexico.

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Her announcement came on Instagram, and it's a devastating development for Sakkari, who has historically played extremely well in Mexico. She's been one of the players in Mexico who has done tremendously well across several events as the crowd embraced her.

She even joked last year that she's an honorary Mexican because of how she's enjoyed her time there. Unfortunately, fans won't see her this year, as she won't play at the tournament running from September 9th to 15th, but she promised to return soon enough.

Unfortunately for Sakkari's fans, her update didn't feature a timeline of her recovery, so her return to the tennis courts remains unknown for now. She may be back in Asia for the hard-court swing.

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