Sharapova calls off her 2018 tennis season

The five-time Grand Slam champion, Maria Sharapova announced the end of her 2018 tennis season as she withdrew from the China Open in Beijing, the Tianjin Open, and the Kremlin Cup in Moscow due to a prevailing injury. The World Number 24, Sharapova is the defending champion at Tianjin. The Russian queen of tennis made it to the quarters at Roland Garros and the Madrid Open this year. Also, she reached the last four at the BNL Internazionale d’Italia in Rome this year.

The 2018 tennis season is her second year back from a doping ban. And the 31-year-old has reached the finals at Tianjin where she also clinched the title. However, she exited from the opening rounds of four WTA events. It is the first time Sharapova hasn’t been successful in winning a title since she turned professional in 2003.

Sharapova is regretful about not participating in North-eastern Chinese, Tianjin. She told the organisers in Tianjin that “I was looking forward to coming back to Tianjin to defend my title but unfortunately I need to give myself time to recover from injury, “I am disappointed that I won’t be able to play in front of all of the fans in Tianjin again and I hope to be able to play there in the future.“I wish everyone at the tournament a successful five-year anniversary.”

After a decent dwell on the clay courts, Sharapova had a tough time on the grass and the hard courts. She exited from the first round at the Wimbledon and also withdrew from the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham. In addition to that, she was not active on the North American tennis courts as she withdrew from the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose and Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati in Ohio. She made it to the third round in Canada in the Rogers Cup and reached the round-of-16 at the Flushing Meadows. Sharapova decides to get on to the tennis courts in the 2019 Shenzhen Open.