Aryna Sabalenka withdraws from Stuttgart Tennis Grand Prix with unspecified injury

The Stuttgart Tennis Grand Prix in Germany will be without the world’s top player when it begins Monday. Aryna Sabalenka withdrew Thursday from the WTA 500 tournament, two rungs below a Grand Slam, citing an unspecified injury she sustained after winning the Miami Open late last month.

“I’m very sad to say that I won’t be able to play the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix this year,” Sabalenka announced on social media.

“I always love coming back to Stuttgart. The atmosphere, the fans, and the support I feel there are so special to me. And of course, I was really hoping to have another chance to fight for that Porsche.

“Unfortunately, I suffered an injury after Miami, and even though I tried everything to recover in time, I’m not ready to compete.

“I’m really sorry to miss this amazing tournament. Wishing everyone a great week in Stuttgart, and I hope to see you all again very soon.”

Stuttgart marks the third tournament Sabalenka will miss this season — though the first that she has directly attributed to injury — after she skipped the Qatar Open, which began in February, eight days after her loss in the Australian Open final, and pulled out of the Dubai Tennis Championships later that month, saying in a statement she was “not feeling 100 percent.”

Both were mandatory WTA 1000 events, meaning Sabalenka accepted the rankings points and financial penalties that come with sitting out an event of that size.

Sabalenka has won the three tournaments she has played this year outside of the Australian Open. In Melbourne, she lost the championship match to Elena Rybakina. During her Brisbane International title run in January, Sabalenka discussed how difficult it is to balance the demands of the WTA schedule with maximizing performance.

“The season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us, as you see so many players getting injured and also the balls are quite heavy. It’s a lot of struggle for all of us,” the 27-year-old said in a news conference.

“Even though the results were really consistent, some of the tournaments I had been playing completely sick or I’ve been really exhausted from overplaying.”

Highly ranked players such as Sabalenka are required to play in the four Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000 tournaments and six WTA 500 tournaments throughout the season. But both Sabalenka and world No. 3 Iga Świątek, who also skipped Dubai this year, have said the intense scheduling can come at the cost of player health.

The WTA Tour says that player health is a priority, and has set up a council with a view to making changes as soon as 2027.

Her decision to skip Dubai drew criticism from the event’s tournament director, Salah Tahlak, who called Sabalenka and Świątek’s reasons for withdrawing “a bit strange” in an interview with The National. Tahlak called for harsher punishment than financial penalties for players who miss tournaments, including docked rankings points.

In response, Sabalenka said she wasn’t sure if she would ever return to the tournament.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Tennis, Women’s Tennis

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