No Maria Sharapova in the 2008 U.S. Open Championships

Awww... Now this officially sucks.

The 2008 U.S. Open Championships is underway but it seems the last Grand Slam of the tennis calendar seems to miss something very very important, it's most marketable entity. I'm referring to Maria Sharapova and as sad as it may sound, yes, she'll be out of the tourney because of an injury.

You read it, the hot and sexy Maria Sharapova will miss the 2008 U.S Open because of an injury on her right shoulder. This marks the first major championship that she will miss since her Grand Slam debut back in 2003.

Sharapova claims that there is no surgery needed. She also tells she'll be back in two or three months. But STILL, a Grand Slam tournament without her long legs, short skirts and cute little panties is like dropping an atomic bomb on Florida when the Miami Heat is having a vacation in some other part of the world.

The world no.3 Maria Sharapova has played in each of the past 23 major championships, winning titles at Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in January.

A doctor who looked at tests on her shoulder from April told Sharapova that she has been playing with a torn rotator cuff tendon since spring.

''He actually couldn't believe that I've been playing this long with this injury. You can imagine that I was not very thrilled to hear that my medical team did not see this tear in my shoulder back in April,'' Maria Sharapova said.

''The good news is that it didn't get much worse since April, but we could have started the healing time back then instead of now.''

That leaves this year's U.S. Open without it's two past champions, Sharapova because of the injury and Justine Henin who retired already.

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2008 U.S. Open Maria Sharapova