Maria Sharapova's bad right shoulder will keep her out of the U.S. Open, too, The Associated Press has learned.
The injury that the No. 3-ranked Sharapova cited in pulling out of the Beijing Olympics also will keep her sidelined during the year's
last Grand Slam tournament, a U.S. Open official told the AP on Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Sharapova had yet to publicly announce her withdrawal. The player's agent informed the U.S. Open she wouldn't be able to play, the official said.
Sharapova won the 2006 U.S. Open for one of her three Grand Slam singles titles.
The Russian announced Thursday on her Web site that she will have to miss the Olympics because of two small tears in tendons in her right shoulder.
The Olympic tennis tournament begins Aug. 11, and the U.S. Open starts Aug. 25.
Sharapova is 31-4 with three titles in 2008, and she briefly was ranked No. 1. The 21-year-old player has become one of tennis' biggest stars, with millions of dollars in endorsement deals.
The right-handed Sharapova pulled out of the WTA tournament in Montreal because of the shoulder on Wednesday night — after winning a nearly three-hour match in which she double-faulted 17 times. She was examined by a trainer midway through the three-set victory.
"After yesterday's match, I knew there was something seriously wrong with my shoulder," Sharapova said in a posting on her Web site Thursday under the headline: "No chance of me competing in Beijing."
Sharapova has been bothered off-and-on by her right shoulder for some time, and she pulled out of a tournament in March because of it.
"This is something that needs a lot of time to heal," she said on the Web site Thursday, adding that she would be getting a second opinion.
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