Serena withdraws
A shattered Serena Williams is in a desperate fight to be fit for Wimbledon after pulling out of the French Open with a pectoral muscle injury.
The 23-times grand slam champion withdrew just minutes before her scheduled blockbuster fourth-round encounter with career-long rival Maria Sharapova.
‘‘Unfortunately it’s been getting worse to the point where right now I can’t actually serve,’’ Williams told a packed press conference in Paris.
‘‘It’s kind of hard to play when I can’t physically serve.’’
Making her grand slam comeback following the birth last September of her first child, the 36-year-old said she first felt the injury in her third-round win over Julia Goerges.
Before that, Williams had never experienced any such problem during her 20-year professional career.
‘‘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,’’ the American superstar said when asked if she still hoped to pursue an eighth Wimbledon crown next month.
‘‘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. 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.’’
Sharapova’s walkover win advances the dual French Open winner to a quarterfinal tomorrow against 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza, who advanced when unseeded Ukraine Lesia Tsurenko retired, also injured, while trailing the Spaniard 2-0 yesterday.
Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber are set for a sequel to their pulsating Australian Open semifinal after a day of high drama at Roland Garros.
While Sharapova and Muguruza can prepare for a heavyweight quarterfinal stoush, Williams is now in a race against the clock to be fit for Wimbledon.
But the show rolls on at Roland Garros for Sharapova, Muguruza and fellow title hopefuls Halep and Kerber, who couldn’t have been more impressive yesterday.
Halep underlined her credentials with a clinical dispatch of tournament dark horse Elise Mertens, the top-seeded twotime finalist sweeping past the Belgian 6-2 6-1 in 59 minutes.
Kerber clubbed France’s last hope, seventh seed Caroline Garcia, 6-2 6-3 to reach her first French Open quarter-final since 2012.
Williams wasn’t the only former world No 1 casualty yesterday, with rising Russian Daria Kasatkina sending Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki crashing out. Kasatkina won 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
Meanwhile, 10-times champion Rafael Nadal fired a chilling warning to pretenders to his throne after surging into a record-equalling 12th French Open quarterfinal.
The world No 1 celebrated his 32nd birthday with a 6-3 6-2 7-6 (7-4) fourth-round victory over little-known but gallant German Maximilian Marterer.
The top seed will next play Diego Schwartzman after Argentina’s 11th seed fought back from two sets and 5-3 down to prevail over South African sixth seed Kevin Anderson 1-6 2-6 7-5 7-6 (7-0) 6-2.
Nadal or Schwartzman will play either Marin Cilic, Fabio Fognini or Juan Martin del Potro in the semifinals.
The resurgent Martin Del Potro qualified for his first Roland Garros quarter final in six years with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 defeat of big-serving American ninth seed John Isner.
The sixth-seeded Argentine will play third-seeded Australian Open runner-up Marin Cilic, who survived a feverish fightback from Fabio Fognini to advance 6-4 6-1 3-6 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 over the mercurial Italian. The Washington Capitals are one win away from the first championship in their 43-year history after routing the Vegas Golden Knights 6-2 yesterday to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
T J Oshie, Tom Wilson and Devante Smith-pelly all scored in the first period to get the Capitals rolling against a determined Vegas team that had no answers early against Braden Holtby, who stopped 28 shots in another strong showing.
The desperate Golden Knights outchanced the Capitals by a wide margin but fell apart after James Neal clanked a shot off the post instead of hitting a wideopen net early, and the expansion team’s Cinderella run could be over in a matter of days.
Evgeny Kuznetsov had four assists and John Carlson, Michal Kempny and Brett Connolly also scored as thunderous chants of ‘‘We want the Cup! We want the Cup!’’ rang out from the crowd.
Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals will get their first chance to hoist the Cup in Game 5 on Friday back in Las Vegas.
No team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1942 has blown a 3-1 lead in the Cup Final.
The Capitals seem to be getting enough bounces to make up for nine previous first- or secondround playoff exits in the Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom era — and plenty more disappointments in the previous decades, too.
While Vegas rang several shots off the posts, the Capitals seized just about every opportunity as they have throughout this surprising run. Kuznetsov leads all playoff scorers with 31 points, Ovechkin is tied for the goal lead with 14 and Holtby showed again his ability to alter the course of a game.