Tearful Sharapova to play on after injury KO
A tearful Maria Sharapova promised that she would not take the “easy route” and step away from tennis after retiring from her Wimbledon first-round match against Pauline Parmentier while trailing 5-0 in the deciding set.
The 2004 champion, who has not reached the Wimbledon second round since 2015, had served for the match at 5-3 in the second set but lost that on a tie-break, before calling a medical timeout and having her left wrist tendon taped by a trainer.
When asked whether she could have played one final game to complete the match, she said that she “probably couldn’t have got through that final set” at all and had been in significant pain since the second set. “It’s very rare that I withdraw from a match in the middle,” she said. “I got myself to a good enough place to be part of this event, not be out of the draw. I don’t want to put anyone in that position. I’m here to play. Next time I come
All cried out: Maria Sharapova retired through injury against Pauline Parmentier here, I want to feel great. I want to do what I’m meant to be doing at the level I believe I can.”
It had been the first time that Sharapova was not seeded at Wimbledon for 16 years and was only her second tournament since recovering from shoulder surgery following the Australian Open. She has reached only one grand slam quarter-final since returning from her drug suspension but, even despite her subsequent injury problems, believes that she can again contend for the biggest prizes.
“I’m still proud that I’m here,” she said. “This is not the easy way. I think the easy way would be just for me to maybe do other things. I’ve never taken the easy route.
‘‘I’ve always worked, committed, focused. Like I said, these moments are hard, but I love what I do. I still have a lot of passion for it.”
Another former champion, Garbine Muguruza, was also eliminated, losing in straight sets to Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia. No defending women’s champion has lost in the first round since Steffi Graf in 1994 and Angelique Kerber started the defence of her title with an impressive victory over Tatjana Maria. The top seed and French Open champion, Ashleigh Barty, also won in straight sets. For only the third time in 10 years, there were more women’s matches than men’s on Centre and No1 courts yesterday. More women than men were due to feature in total on the show courts (Centre, No1, 2, 3, 12 and 18) both yesterday and today, but, two years after Andy Murray and others called for a better presence of women on Centre, progress is slow. The Duchess of Cambridge said she loved her low-key trip to Wimbledon. Few spectators inside Court 16 even noticed as Kate sneaked inside alongside Great Britain Federation Cup members Bernard Tomic may have been rattled out in just 58 minutes, but Roger Federer believes the surface is slowing up the game. “I just felt like it was slow,” he said. “Early rounds can be tricky because of the way the ball bounces, the kick goes or doesn’t go.”