24 Aug 2013

Sharapova withdraws from US Open

7:18 am on 24 August 2013

Ashoulder injury has forced Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova to pull out of next week's US Open in New York.

Sharapove, the 2006 US Open champion and third seed at Flushing Meadows, fired her coach Jimmy Connors last week after just one match together.

She lost to the American teenager Sloane Stephens in the second round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.

The defending champion Serena Williams is the top seed, ahead of the Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka, and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, who moves up to third.