Aryna Sabalenka blows hole in Wimbledon draw after pulling out

One big withdrawal could be regarded as unfortunate for a tournament, two a bit of a fluke. But three seeded players pulling out of Wimbledon before they had even hit a ball in anger smacks of something more significant. The third seed Aryna Sabalenka, the 16th seed Victoria Azarenka and the No 22 Ekaterina Alexandrova all withdrew from the women’s singles here on day one, putting a great big hole in the bottom half of the draw in the process.

Health has been a watchword already this week with several players, including Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur, the runner-up in each of the past two years, both explaining their decisions not to play in the Olympic Games this month, another quick change of surface too much of a stress on their bodies.

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Sabalenka’s withdrawal was not entirely unexpected; the Belarusian had pulled out of the warm-up event in Berlin and talked at length in her pre-tournament press conference about the state of her “teres major”, a shoulder muscle, which was causing her pain when serving, admitting she might not make it to the starting line.

A semi-finalist here in her past two visits, she was one of the favourites for the title, having also won her second grand slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year. But after cutting short a practice session on Monday, she pulled out before the start of her first-round match. “I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not co-operating,” she said on Instagram. “I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best but my team explained that playing would make only make things much worse.”

While Alexandrova, who was due to play Emma Raducanu in round one on Centre Court, cited illness, the former world No 1 Azarenka also withdrew with a shoulder injury, summing up her thoughts on social media with a simple “ugh”.

The carnage did not stop there. Qinwen Zheng, seeded eighth and the runner-up to Sabalenka in Australia, was beaten 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 by Lulu Sun, a qualifier from New Zealand who was playing her first main draw match. Former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova also went out, beaten 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 by Diana Shnaider.

Naomi Osaka avoided the cull, narrowly, as she came from 3-1 down in the final set to beat Diane Parry of France 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. Back after having her first child almost a year ago to the day, it’s her first time here since 2019. “I’m just really excited to be here,” she said. “Wimbledon was the first one I watched after pregnancy. My daughter turns one tomorrow, so I’m just glad to be here and glad I could turn it around.”

The main beneficiary is Coco Gauff, the No 2 seed, who was due to play her first match later on Monday. Gauff and Sabalenka had been seeded to meet in the semi-finals, which would have been a repeat of their semi-final clash in Melbourne, won by the Belarusian.