Maria Sharapova pulls out of Wimbledon qualifying with injury

Maria Sharapova will have to wait until the US Open in August – at the earliest – to return to grand slam action after the Russian star pulled out of Wimbledon qualifying due to injury.

Sharapova came back to the tennis tour in April after a 15-month doping ban but with her ranking not yet good enough to make the main draw needed a wildcard to enter the ongoing French Open.

But after being denied that wildcard by the French tennis federation, the five-time grand slam winner – and world’s richest female athlete for most of the past decade – decided to enter Wimbledon qualifying in the final week of June instead of requesting a main-draw wildcard.

READ: Sharapova denied wildcard

However the thigh injury she sustained at the Italian Open in May hasn’t sufficiently healed.

After Maria Sharapova was denied a wild card to play at Roland Garros, have tennis fashionistas been denied a "wow" moment at the French Open?

At the 2006 US Open, the Russian wore this sleek outfit inspired by Audrey Hepburn's 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' dress.

At Roland Garros in 2008, Sharapova wore this blue-and-white outfit inspired by 1920s French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen.

Although Sharapova was denied a wild card into Roland Garros following her drug ban, Nike had already made her French Open outfits. "Sharapova had oufits for all five slams she has missed out on, there is a missing era of Sharapova fashion going on now," said Ben Rothenberg, tennis contributor to the New York Times.

Venus Williams shocked some onlookers at the 2010 French Open with her skin-toned underwear.

At Roland Garros last year, Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev wore matching Adidas Zebra-inspired outfits. "I actually really liked the zebra prints, I know some people hated it but I actually really liked that stuff," sid Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

The US player -- ranked doubles world No. 1 -- knocked out the returning Petra Kvitova at this year's French Open wearing a cherry-covered top.

Defending champion Garbine Muguruza was knocked out by Kristina Mladenovic. Though both are sponsored by Adidas, the pair had none of the clashing problems of Zverev and Thiem.

Mladenovic eventually prevailed and the 13th seed now faces Timea Bacsinszky in the quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic recently made the switch from Uniqlo to French fashion giant Lacoste, just in time for the start of the French Open.

French Open 2017: Absent stars rob Roland Garros of showstopping moment

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She will also miss the Aegon Classic in Birmingham in the middle of June – a tournament where she was given a wildcard – but plans to be back in Stanford, California in late July.

The US Open will now have to decide whether to hand her a wildcard.

“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,” Sharapova said on her Facebook page.

“I want to thank the LTA for their amazing support on my return and providing me with a Birmingham wild card, a tournament which I hope many of you will be able to attend.

“I look forward to meeting you there next year. I will continue to work on my recovery and my next scheduled tournament is in Stanford.”

Even if she returns to full health, Sharapova will still need the wildcard to get into the US Open because her current ranking of 178th will be too low to land a direct spot by the time the entry deadline comes in the middle of July, before Stanford starts.

READ: Nadal, Wawrinka to clash in French Open final

Without Sharapova in the draw, Jelena Ostapenko won the women’s title at the French Open on Saturday, becoming the first unseeded women’s champion at Roland Garros in the Open Era.