Tennis:Roger Federer today pulled out of the Qatar Open but insisted his participation in the Australian Open was not under threat. The Swiss former world number one withdrew from his scheduled semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Doha citing a back injury.
He remains confident, however, he will be okay to play in the season’s opening grand slam event in Melbourne which gets under way on January 16th.
He told reporters at a press conference: “”I hurt my back in my second-round match against (Grega) Zemlja and just got a little bit better for the match against (Andreas) Seppi.
“I don’t feel a whole lot of improvement for today, and I just don’t think it’s the right time to risk anything more right now. I still have pain, and that’s why it was the only right decision, a difficult one for me.
“It’s a sad moment for me and for the tournament and for the fans, but health goes first, like everybody knows, and I hope I can recover quickly.
For Australia, I’m optimistic. It’s not good, but it isn’t crazy bad.”
The 16-time grand slam champion is the latest big-name player to suffer an injury scare this week with both defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams withdrawing from the Brisbane International.
Clijsters faces a tight deadline to be fit in time for the defence of her title after she was forced to retire injured from her semi-final against Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova today.
Clijsters had fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to win a tiebreak but took an injury timeout after the third game of the second set, with Hantuchova leading 2-1, for treatment on a hip injury.
The 28-year-old four-time grand slam champion returned but lost the next game and then retired with the score at 6-7 3-1.
Hantuchova, who received a walkover into the semi-finals after Williams pulled out with an ankle injury, will meet Kaia Kanepi in the final.
"I felt my left hip was getting tighter and tighter to the point I couldn't move forward with my upper body," said Clijsters, adding that she had felt tightness in her hip before the semi-final. "The smartest choice was not to let it get any worse and try to be right for Melbourne.
"If everything comes out okay tomorrow it should take a little (less than) a week to get completely healed."