Aryna Sabalenka provided an injury update on her shoulder injury after she was forced to withdraw from the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
It's been a very busy year for the Belarusian player, who played a lot of tennis thanks to simply being one of the best players in the world. Wherever she plays, she generally has a deep run, which is what happened at most of her events this year.
She made at least the quarter-final at seven of the ten events she played, which is a lot of tennis and a lot of stress on the body. While not a rule, generally, players who play a lot start to experience some physical issues, and that's what happened to Sabalenka as well.
The cumulative effects of so much tennis simply leave a mark. For her, it happened at the Berlin Open, which was very infamous this year for several injuries. Marketa Vondrousova and Anna Kalinskaya both injured themselves in the German capital, as did Sabalenka, but her injury was a shoulder injury, while the two other players slipped on the court.
She withdrew from her quarter-final match at the WTA 500 event because of it, and it proved to be serious. She confirmed that she wouldn't be playing at Wimbledon, which shocked many because she was one of the players expected to go far at the event.
Her last two appearances at the event ended in the semi-final, and she won a set in both, which shows that she's a very good player on grass. Unfortunately, the injury proved bad enough to keep her away from the event, but it also gave her an opportunity.
She confirmed earlier in the year that she wouldn't play at the Paris Olympics due to the fatigue of playing a lot of tennis, so the Wimbledon withdrawal and Olympics withdrawal allowed for a break at the midway point of the season.
That break, in theory, could have been used for her to recover from her injury and get ready for the upcoming US Open swing, where she played pretty well, and that's exactly what happened.
She responded to a few questions from fans on Instagram, and one of the questions was regarding her shoulder injury, which is fully recovered.
"My last ultrasound showed that my shoulder has healed, so I got to start playing tennis again this week."
With that confirmation, it's pretty clear that Sabalenka is getting back to tennis relatively quickly. It's going to happen next week at the 2024 Citi Open in Washington, which begins on July 29th and runs through August 4th. After a fan asked her where she will play next, she also confirmed it on Instagram.
"Washington D.C."
The event begins two days after the Paris Olympics, where she won't play, of course, so it's an early preparation for the US Open for Sabalenka, who stood in the final last year but lost to Coco Gauff 2-6 6-3 6-2.
She didn't play in Washington last year, and she's not at the same pace as her last year's wins. She had 42 wins after Wimbledon last year and only 30 this year, so expect a motivated Sabalenka.
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