WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Wimbledon favorite Aryna Sabalenka withdrew on Monday because of an injured shoulder.
The two-time Australian Open champion was seeded third at the All England Club and was supposed to play Emina Bektas of the United States in the first round on Day 1 at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.
“Heartbroken to have to tell you all that I won’t be able to play The Championships this year. I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not cooperating,” Sabalenka wrote on social media. "I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse. This tournament means so much to me and I promise I’ll be back stronger than ever next year.”
Sabalenka was favored to win the women’s championship at Wimbledon, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
A semifinalist at the All England Club each of the last two times she appeared there, Sabalenka was replaced in the draw on Monday by Erika Andreeva, who lost in qualifying last week.
A little more than a week ago, Sabalenka stopped playing during the first set of her quarterfinal at the Berlin Ladies Open, citing pain in her shoulder.
She said she had a muscle injury that she called “very frustrating.”
“The most annoying thing is that I can do anything. I can practice; I can hit my groundstrokes. I’m struggling with serving. That’s really annoying. You don’t feel like you’re injured,” Sabalenka said. “If you give me some weights, I’m going to go lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain. We did an MRI, we did everything. We did a lot of rehab, a lot of treatments and everything.”
Sabalenka said on Saturday there was a chance she would need to pull out of Wimbledon, “But I still have my hopes. As someone who been fighting through a lot of different pains in the past months, I still have my hopes.”
The 26-year-old from Belarus briefly reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings for the first time last season and is currently No. 3, behind Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff.
Sabalenka’s game is built on power that she can generate, particularly on her serve and big forehand. It is a style of tennis that works particularly well on speedier surfaces such as the Australian Open’s hard courts — where she won the championships in 2023 and this January — and Wimbledon’s grass.
She made it to the final four at the All England Club a year ago and in 2021. Sabalenka was not allowed to enter Wimbledon in 2022, when all players from Russia and Belarus were banned from the event because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Her departure from the bracket on Monday without playing a point made Sabalenka one of several players who pulled out of the tournament just as it was beginning.
Ekaterina Alexandrova, who was the No. 22 seed, withdrew because of an unspecified illness, hours before she was due to face 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu at Centre Court.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Aryna Sabalenka during a training session at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon ahead of the Wimbledon Championships, which begins on July 1st, on Tuesday June 25, 2024. (John Walton/PA via AP)
Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka practicing at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon ahead of the Wimbledon Championships, which begins on July 1st, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (John Walton//PA via AP)
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus attends a training session ahead of the Wimbledon Championships, at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The tournament starts on July 1st. (John Walton/PA via AP)
ROME (AP) — An Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of two American men in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation but reduced their sentences. The new trial was ordered after Italy’s highest court threw out their convictions.
The court convicted Lee Elder Finnegan and sentenced him to 15 years and 2 months in prison and gave a sentence of 11 years and four months, along with a 800 euro ($863) fine to Gabriele Natale-Hjorth.
They were found guilty in the July 2019 slaying of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega and after the first trial, both were sentenced to life in prison, Italy's harshest penalty. Those sentences were reduced on appeal, and last year, Italy’s highest Cassation Court ordered a retrial.
In the new trial, prosecutors asked that Finnegan be sentenced to 23 years and nine months and Natale-Hjorth to 23 years.
Teenagers at the time of the slaying, the former schoolmates from the San Francisco Bay area had met up in Rome to spend a few days vacationing. The fatal confrontation took place after they arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to have been a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad deal. Instead, they were confronted by the officers.
Cerciello Riga was stabbed 11 times with a knife brought from the hotel room.
In ordering the retrial, the Cassation Court said it hadn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited Italian language skills, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet the alleged drug dealer in Rome.
The defense had argued that the defendants didn’t know they were facing law enforcement when the attack happened, an argument their lawyers repeated during the new trial.
In a statement released by lawyers after the new verdicts, Leah Elder, Finnegan Elder’s mother, insisted that her son didn’t know he had police officers in front of him but said he was prepared to take responsibility for his actions.
“This trial is unfortunately connected to the tragedy of a person’s death, a grave fact that has marked and will forever mark the lives of all the families involved,” she said. “Bringing out the truth of the facts would help Finnegan take full responsibility for the pain he caused with his tragic reaction. I hope that, even as he pays for his mistake, he will also open up to hope for the future.”
The killing of the officer in the storied Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy and the 35-year-old Cerciello Rega was mourned as a national hero.
Prosecutors alleged Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder without carrying out the slaying.
Prosecutors contend the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after their failed attempt to buy cocaine with 80 euros ($96) in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine but didn’t receive it.
Barry reported from Soave, Italy.
Gabriel Natale Hjorth is hugged by a relative after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth sits surrounded by his lawyers after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Finnegan Lee Elder, left, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, sit before the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which they are facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Finnegan Lee Elder, center, is hugged by his lawyer Renato Borzone, after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ethan Elder, left, father of Finnegan Lee Elder hugs his son before the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which Finnegan is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Finnegan Lee Elder, second from left, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, third from left, listen to the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which they are facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Rosa Maria Esilio, widow of Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, leaves after the reading of the judgment of the appeals trial for his murder, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ethan Elder, left, back to camera, father of Finnegan Lee Elder, hugs his son before the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which Finnegan is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. At right sits Gabriel Natale Hjorth charged for the same killing. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth is hugged by his father Fabrizio Natale, after the reading of the judgment at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Andrea Varriale, top left, colleague of Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, and Paolo Cerciello Rega, his brother, attend the appeal trial of Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder where they are accused of slaying the Carabinieri paramilitary police officer in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth leaves at the end of a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Two American men face a new trial in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy's highest court threw out their convictions. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Ethan Elder, father of Finnegan Lee Elder, left, attends a hearing for the appeals trial in which his son is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth listens to his lawyer Francesco Petrelli during a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Two American men face a new trial in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy's highest court threw out their convictions. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
Gabriel Natale Hjorth attends a hearing for the appeals trial in which he is facing murder charges for killing Italian Carabinieri paramilitary police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, in Rome, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Two American men face a new trial in the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy's highest court threw out their convictions. (AP Photo/ Alessandra Tarantino)
