Sabalenka opens up about tough rehab after skipping Wimbledon: “It was my first experience like that”

Aryna Sabalenka explained her decision to withdraw from the Berlin Ladies Open and skip Wimbledon a few weeks ago, despite not usually withdrawing from tournaments. Her absence from the tournament prevented her from defending the points she earned by reaching the semifinals in 2023, distancing her further from the top of the rankings.

The world No. 2 is playing this week at the WTA 500 DC Open, where she is the top seed and awaits her debut on Wednesday against qualifier Kamila Rakhimova. It will be a new opportunity to see Sabalenka on the court after more than a month since her withdrawal in Berlin

In the middle of the grass-swing, Sabalenka played the WTA 500 in Berlin, which was her only preparatory tournament before Wimbledon. The Belarusian debuted with a notable win against Daria Kasatkina (6-1, 6-4) and was set to face Anna Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals. However, she felt discomfort in her shoulder and withdrew with the score at 1-5 in the first set.

News quickly surfaced that Sabalenka might miss Wimbledon, although the confirmation took time. The 2-time Grand Slam champion traveled to London to see if she was fit to play the event, but it became evident that she could not compete and announced her withdrawal due to a right shoulder injury: "That was a very tough decision because I never pull out from the tournament because of the injury.”

“Even if I was injured, I was still playing. I was still struggling for being able to play,” Aryna Sabalenka claimed in a press conference at the Washington Open. "It was my first experience like that. It was very tough. But I decided to take care of my health, to do a proper rehab, get back stronger."

The rehabilitation took several weeks for her to feel fit again. The current world No. 3 was forced to stay away from the courts for weeks to focus on the rehab treatment: "The recovery was, yeah, a very tough one because for two weeks I was doing rehab, like a lot of exercises, a lot of treatments, a lot of recovery stuff. It felt like a lot, the whole day I've been doing, exercises. It feels like it's actually time to switch off, but you're still working out, still doing something. It was very tough."

Sabalenka later announced that she would not be participating in the Olympic Games, hoping to better prepare for the hardcourt swing in the US. The Belarusian hopes to take advantage of her participation in the Mubadala Citi Open this week, especially after skipping the Olympics to quickly adapt to the hardcourts.

At least so far, the former world No. 1 has had positive impressions of her recovery and hopes to get back on track in the upcoming tournaments: "Then I started practicing, like slowly getting back. So far I'm doing well. Hopefully, this injury will never bother me again and I'll be able to play the next Grand Slam, which is my favorite one. I really want to do well there," she concluded.