Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew from her quarterfinal clash with Ai Sugiyama at the Medibank International Sydney, which leaves her appearance at the Australian Open in doubt.
The Russian world No.8 suffered an abdominal strain in her second round win over Kaia Kanepi on Tuesday.
“I felt it a little bit before, but I thought, well, it’s just tight muscle. Now, every time I start to pull, it feels worse and worse. Yesterday I could manage to finish and win the match [but] I went to warm-up today and it was worse,” said Kuznetsova, disappointed she sustained an injury so close to the Australian Open.
Kuznetsova will try to slowly recover and hopefully be ready for Melbourne. She had the similar injury before, having played the 2006 French Open with the same problem. (source: Australian Open, photo by our reader Jacob)
