Tested positive for the coronavirus, world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka is forced to forfeit the Indian Wells tournament which begins in the middle of next week.
She should have been the No. 1 seed in the Indian Wells tournament following the forfeit of world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty. But Aryna Sabalenka will not play the California tournament either. The world No. 2 is forced to forfeit, after having tested positive for the coronavirus. “I have started my quarantine and I will stay there as long as the doctors and health authorities tell me to do so. So far everything is fine but I’m really sad that I won’t be able to play this year, ”the 23-year-old Belarusian player wrote on her Instagram page. TOnear Ashley Barty, Sofia Kenin, Naomi Osaka or Serena Williams, it is therefore another renowned player who will be absent at Indian Wells, the first tournament to have been canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and which had been postponed for the same reason from March to October this year. The status of seed n ° 1 will therefore go to world n ° 3 Karolina Pliskova.
See you at the Guadalajara Masters?
Victorious in the Abu Dhabi and Madrid tournaments this year, and also a finalist in Stuttgart, Aryna Sabalenka is having the best season of her career, and above all she has taken a step forward in Grand Slam by finally passing the stage of the round of 16. She remains in two semi-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open, where she lost against Karolina Pliskova then Leylah Fernandez. The Belarusian hoped to shine on the side of Indian Wells, considered a bit like the fifth Grand Slam, a tournament where she was beaten in the round of 16 in 2018 and in the round of 16 in 2019. If all goes well, we will see her again in competition during of the Guadalajara Masters (the Mexican city is hosting the competition this year instead of Shenzhen, China) from November 10 to 17, for which she has already qualified as the second best player in the calendar year.
