Top seed Marion Bartoli retired with an ankle injury soon after the start of the third set of her opening match against Anabel Medina Garrigues at the Commonweath Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. And that wasn’t the only blow to the tournament on Friday. An earthquake hit the exotic island so much that the press conference had to be held outside the tournament facility. Luckily it happened after the matches were completed and spectators had already left.
“I’ve never done a press conference like this before,” said Daniela Hantuchova who lost her quarterfinal to Sabine Lisicki 7-5 6-2. “It was quite frightening, but we seem to be okay.”
Bartoli had to give up the match after two hours and 40 minutes of play, when Medina Garrigues was leading 4-6 7-6(7) 1-0, because of the injury the Frenchwoman sustained in the tiebreaker.
On one of Anabel’s dropshots I really felt my ankle blocked and my whole body went forward on it. It started to hurt a few seconds after and when I got the match point on my serve I really struggled to put any weight on my foot. Everything falls apart from there.
Ironically, this tournament has only a three-year-old history and Bartoli is leaving it injured for the second time. In the inaugural edition she handed the final to Aravane Rezai, while today she held two match points in the second-set tiebreak.
To sum up, the second semifinal pair is Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Sabine Lisicki. The first semifinal pair was determined yesterday – Ana Ivanovic vs. Nadia Petrova. (photos: Robertus Pudyanto)
Well, yet another proof that WTA nowadays is a turbulent environment 🙂