Tennis: Maria Sharapova to miss Wimbledon

Russian player Maria Sharapova will not play at Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam tournament of the season, after having already missed the Australian Open and the French Open. Her last appearance on the circuit was at the Italian Open in Rome, where she retired in the second round due to a thigh problem. Sharapova, aged 30, says she might return on the circuit at the end of July, after the grass-court season. She made her return on the WTA circuit in April after a 15-month doping ban. Shrapova made the announcement about her injury on Facebook: "After an additional scan, the muscle tear that I sustained in Rome will unfortunately not allow me to compete in the grass court tournaments I was scheduled to play. I will continue to work on my recovery and my next scheduled tournament is in Stanford." The five-time Grand Slam winner is currently ranked 178th and she has even been outside of the top 500 since testing positive for banned drug Meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open. Due to her low ranking she needs either to go through qualifying at major tournaments or receive wildcards. She was denied such a wildcard for the French Open with the doping suspension being the main argument supporting that decision, but she had received an invitation to the upcoming grass-court tournament in Birmingham. With Sharapova out and Serena Williams also not taking part, who will win the women's tournament at Wimbledon is anybody's guess. 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko has just won the French Open the first time she played a Grand Slam final. Karolina Pliskova is 6/1 at Bet365 to win the title at Wimbledon, Petra Kvitova is 8/1 and Johanna Konta is 9/1.