Maria Sharapova withdraws from Rogers Cup

Maria Sharapova of Russia at Wimbledon earlier this year

The Russian ace and former World No. 1 has withdrawn from the Canada-based Rogers Cup, it was revealed in an announcement from the WTA yesterday.

Sharapova has suffered a right leg strain and will be unable to compete in the tournament, which will commence tomorrow in Toronto. The withdrawal means that World No 3 Simona Halep of Romania will now be seeded second. She will compete against several Grand Slam winners she has already beaten before, the Williams sisters among them.

5-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova ended her run at Wimbledon last month in the semi-finals, bowing out after a loss to World No. 1 Serena Williams, who went on to win the Championships. The Russian appears to have taken a break from competing, having not played a match since.

The Rogers Cup is one of the tournaments in the run-up to the hard-court US Open, which will commence on the 31st of August. Should Williams win that tournament, she will have won all four Grand Slams and finished a calendar sweep.

Last year’s Rogers Cup women’s singles champion is World No. 7 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who is on course to participate in the tournament.

The organisation shared the news on their official Twitter page.

Among others who have withdrawn from the cup is World No. 2 Roger Federer, who made the announcement in a statement to Tennis Canada earlier this month.

While Federer has won the cup twice, in 2004 and 2006, he made it to last year’s finals, where he was beaten by Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Sharapova has never won the Rogers Cup title. She is scheduled to play in Cincinnati next week before heading to New York for the US Open.

.@MariaSharapova has withdrawn from @RogersCup with a right leg strain--> http://t.co/6pdMwy98kS #WTA pic.twitter.com/2ETahukaAj

— WTA (@WTA) August 7, 2015