PARIS (AFP) – Maria Sharapova has pulled out of this year’s French Open with a shoulder injury, the two-time former Roland Garros winner announced on Wednesday.
Sharapova, 32, a five-time Grand Slam champion, has not played since pulling out of a tournament in her native Russia at the end of January.
“Sometimes the right decisions aren’t always the easiest ones,” she said in a post on her Instagram account.
“In better news, I have returned to the practice court, and slowly building the strength back in my shoulder,” she added with a picture of her lifting the Roland Garros trophy in 2014.
In February the world number 35 said she had undergone a small procedure to fix a long-standing shoulder problem.
RAIN DELAYS FEDERER’S RETURN
Meantime, Roger Federer’s return to the Italian Open was scuppered by rain on Wednesday as officials were forced to cancel the day’s play after waiting in vain for more than nine hours for wintery weather to clear.
