Tennis Panorama

Tennis News and Information, Tournament Coverage and Features

Tennis Panorama News

Tennis news and information, tournament coverage and features

You are here: Home / Features / Serena Williams Withdraws from Roland Garros with Arm Injury

Serena Williams Withdraws from Roland Garros with Arm Injury

by

(June 4, 2018) Serena Williams has pulled out of Roland Garros with an arm injury, her pectoral muscle, an hour ahead of her fourth round match against No. 28 seed Maria Sharapova. Sharapova will advance to the quarterfinals.

Williams held a news conference to announce her withdrawal, here are some quotes from her news conference:

“I unfortunately have been having some issues with my pec, my pec muscle, and has unfortunately been getting worse to the point where right now I can’t actually serve. It’s kind of hard to play when I can’t physically serve.”

“It didn’t start before I got here. The first time I felt it was against (Julia) Goerges in my last match. That’s when I started to feel it. I was, like, it was really painful and I didn’t know what it was.

 

“In my doubles yesterday I tried a lot of different tapings, and I tried lots of different types of support to see how it would feel under match circumstance. It didn’t really get a lot better.”

“So I’m going to get an MRI tomorrow. I’m going to stay here and see some of the doctors here, see as many specialists as I can. And I won’t know that until I get those results.”

“I’m beyond disappointed. You know, I gave up so much, from time with my daughter to time with my family. I put everything on the court, you know. All for this moment. So it’s really difficult to be in this situation, but I always, for now in my life, I just always try to think positive and just think of the bigger picture and hopefully the next events and the rest of the year.”

“I really felt like I needed to because I’m never going to know how I feel under match play if I didn’t have that match. And plus I wanted to try different tapings and different strappings and lots of different stuff to see what’s helping and what can help and what I could try in my singles match. And I’m not serving that often; I’m serving once every four games. So I thought it was a perfect opportunity for me to kind of see how I would be and how I would go in that.”

“Well, I have been good. I have been doing so good. I have been really, you know, like I was saying, every match has been getting better for me. Physically I’m doing great. You know, again, it hasn’t been easy. I sacrificed so much to be at this event. I can only take solace in the fact I’m going to continue to get better. And I had such a wonderful performance in my first Grand Slam back. I just feel like it’s only going to do better. And I’m coming up on hopefully surfaces that are my absolute favorite to play on and that I do best on.

“Hopefully, you know, I can continue to heal and be able to play those events.”

“Yeah, it’s very difficult, because I love playing Maria. You know, it’s just a match I always get up for. You know, it’s just her game matches so well against mine.

“It is difficult, because like I keep saying, I have given up so much to be here. You know, there is times where I’m on the court and I’m practicing, and I look on the monitor and I see my daughter and she’s playing and I want to be there, but I know that these are the sacrifices you have to make to live out your dream.

“And I have made every sacrifice that I could. So it’s extremely disappointing. But also, I made a promise to myself and to my coach and to my team that if I’m not at least 60% or 50%, then I probably shouldn’t play. The fact that I physically can’t serve at all is a good indication that maybe I should just go back to the drawing board and stay positive and try to get better and not get it to a point where it could be a lot worse.”

“It was a great effort to come back, and, you know, just showed all the hard work I put in for fitness and training and just doing something that I love so much. I love tennis and I love being out here, and especially for the Grand Slams.”

 “There is a lot of theories. I have never had this before. So that’s one of the things I was telling my team. I was, like, I have never felt this in my life. Like, this is so painful.

“So I don’t really know how to manage it yet. Sadly, when you do have an injury that you have had before, you can kind of manage it. I have pretty much had every injury in the book. But this is a little different, and, yeah, I’m clueless as to what to do. I’m just going to do what the doctor thinks I should do and get all the evaluations on it.”

Sharapova will play former champion and third seed Garbine Muguruza who advanced when her opponent Lesia Tsurenko had to retire after two games when she suffered a hamstring injury.

Top seed Simona Halep  beat Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-1, she’ll play Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals.

Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki lost in a match carried over from Sunday to Daria Kasatkina 7-6, 6-3. Kasatkina will face Sloane Stephens next.

In men’s action, Rafael Nadal notched his 900th career match-win, beating Maximilian Marterer 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (4). The ten-time champion will take on play 11 seed Diego Schwartzman, who rallied to get past Kevin Anderson 1-6, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (0), 6-2.

Marin Cilic held off Fabio Fognini 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3 to get to the elite 8. The 2014 US Open winner will play 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro for a spot in the semifinals. Del Potro took down John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Share