Defending champion Maria Sharapova and top-seeded Simona Halep withdrew from the Australian Open warmup tournament in Brisbane within an hour of each other on Tuesday, without playing a match.
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World no 1 Serena Williams dismissed concerns about her fitness for the upcoming Australian Open, despite being forced to retire from her first singles match at the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth on Tuesday.
“I just have some inflammation that’s been going away very slowly”, Williams said.
Two-time Brisbane International finalist Victoria Azarenka cruised into the second round on Monday with a comprehensive straight-sets win over Elena Vesnina.
Maria Sharapova is the defending champion at the Brisbane International.
“Yeah, I feel that it’s a good timing to play against her. Still, I feel that she’s the best player in the world”. And the American retired when trailing 5-7, 1-2, having appeared extremely restricted in her movement during the match, particularly on her left side.
Foot and thigh injuries have derailed Azarenka’s last two seasons.
The 28-year-old missed last year’s US Open due to injury and will now head to Melbourne to prepare for the Open with no match practice in the build-up.
Halep says she had an MRI on her inflamed left Achilles’ tendon, an injury she had last summer.
“Yeah, I’m planning to go to Sydney”, Halep said, according to WTATennis.com.
Foot and thigh injuries interrupted the past two seasons for the former world number one Azarenka, who won this tournament back in 2009.
Eighth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria beat Australian wildcard James Duckworth 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Czech veteran Radek Stepanek thumped young Serb Dusan Lajovic 6-0, 6-3.
US Open runner-up Roberta Vinci started the season with an emphatic 6-1 6-1 victory over Dominika Cibulkova while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Alize Cornet.
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According to Serena: “Unfortunately due to inflammation in my knee, I need to rest and am confident to be out there against Aussie Gold tomorrow evening”. “She was injured at the end of previous year and I haven’t seen her play much because of that, but that’s a pretty high quality first match against a tough opponent”.
