{"id":34139,"date":"2026-05-10T17:29:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34139"},"modified":"2026-05-10T17:29:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:29:04","slug":"sabalenka-exits-rome-with-injury-concern-ahead-of-french-open","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sabalenka-exits-rome-with-injury-concern-ahead-of-french-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka exits Rome with injury concern ahead of French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Aryna Sabalenka&#8217;s French Open preparations suffered a setback following a third-round defeat by Sorana Cirstea at the Italian Open, \u200bwith the world No. 1 now looking to shake \u200coff an injury ahead of the Grand Slam that begins this month.<\/div>\n<div>Sabalenka needed treatment late in her meeting with Cirstea on Saturday before she \u200bfell 2-6 6-3 7-5 for her second defeat in \u200bthree matches after a quarterfinal loss to Hailey Baptiste at \u2060the Madrid Open last month.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I feel like I didn&#8217;t play \u200bwell from the beginning till the end. I started really well, \u200bbut I dropped the level,&#8221; four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka said in Rome.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I felt like my body was limiting me from performing at the highest \u200blevel. She stepped in and played incredible tennis. She didn&#8217;t \u200breally give me many opportunities.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;That was a tough one. But I guess we \u200cnever \u2060lose; we only learn, so it&#8217;s okay.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sabalenka&#8217;s disappointing claycourt swing follows a stellar run on hardcourts, during which she captured the Brisbane title, reached the Australian Open final and claimed back-to-back trophies \u200bin Indian Wells \u200band Miami.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u2060Belarusian said she now hoped to recover her fitness in time for the French Open, which \u200bgets underway in Paris on May 24, after losing \u200blast \u2060year&#8217;s final against Coco Gauff.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I&#8217;d say that probably it&#8217;s like my lower back, connected to the hip, which limited my full rotation,&#8221; \u2060the 28-year-old \u200badded.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I guess we&#8217;re just going to \u200bhave some days off. We&#8217;re going to spend it on recovery. That&#8217;s the plan \u200bfor now.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21159,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34139","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Sabalenka's disappointing claycourt swing follows a stellar run on hardcourts.","published_date":"","news_description":"Sabalenka's disappointing claycourt swing follows a stellar run on hardcourts.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34141,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34139\/revisions\/34141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}