Bad luck for Gael, missing his home tournament. The official press release from Roland Garros states:
Gaël Monfils withdraws from the tournament
Suffering from a right knee injury, Gaël Monfils will be unable to compete this year in the French Open at Roland-Garros.
He will have to rest for at least three weeks before playing again.
The French player will be replaced in the men’s singles final draw by a lucky loser.
I hope you recover in time for Wimbledon Gael.
The blue clay may not be the only talking point in Madrid this weekend. Another high profile player, 4th Seed Andy Murray, has today withdrawn from the tournament.
This is in addition to the earlier story we brought you regarding the withdraw of Americian duo Andy Roddick & Mardy Fish, the former also pulling out of Rome.
A back injury is the reason behind the withdraw.
“It is with regret that on doctors advice I have to withdraw from the Mutua Madrid Open with injury,” Murray said in a statement on the Madrid website. “I always love coming to Madrid so it is a big disappointment. I look forward to returning next year and wish everyone a great week of tennis.”
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, an early casualty in Munich this week, will take the No. 4 seed slot. The draw for the tournament will be held on Saturday afternoon.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters will not play the French Open held in Paris, France due to still needing recovery from a hip surgery.
The 28-year-old, previously stating that she will end her career after this season, has been suffering from ankle and hip injuries for a while now. Clijsters admitted to having an injury after being defeated by Yanina Wickmayer in the Sony Ericsson Open last month.
The Belgian has also stated that she will mainly focus on the grass-court season that comes after the clay-court season, which includes Wimbledon and the Olympic Games.
Good luck to getting better and playing well again, Kim!
Kirsten Flipkens will be taking a break from tennis because she has blood clots in a calf muscle. I was really hoping to see Flipkens in some good form this year, but I guess that will just have to wait for a little while.
Kirsten get well and see you on court very soon.
Serena Williams has just pulled out of the Monterrey WTA Tournament this week. Serena was invited to play the tournament by officials, but she had to decline due to an ankle injury.
Serena is scheduled to play her next tournament in Miami.
Kim Clijsters will not be playing this years BNP Paribas Open championship at Indian Wells. Clijsters withdrew from the tournament with an ankle injury.
Its a real shame for Clijsters, but Im really hoping to see her playing at her best during the French Open 2012 in Paris.
Poor old Rafael Nadal broke down to tears when he injured his knee before the Australian Open 2012. Its amazing what a few weeks can do and a shit load of pain killers!
“I explained that after my match on the first, what happened the Sunday before on my knee, something very strange,” he said. ”But that’s why, because Sunday afternoon, 24 hours to play my first match, I was in my room crying because I believe I didn’t had the chance to play Melbourne. So it was a very, very tough situation for me, these hours. Two weeks later I am here in the finals, so is a dream for me because having very bad expectations 24 hours before the first match, and now two weeks later I am playing well.”
Serena Williams was knocked out of the Australian Open 2012 this morning in straight sets by unseeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-3.
Now she has come out with the outragous statement that she would not have played the tournament had it not been a major.
“No, no way. I probably shouldn’t have played. But no way,” Serena told reporters. “I never blame any injury that I have because I feel like she played really well and she deserved the win…Obviously I’m not 100 percent, and I haven’t been. But it’s no excuse.”
I find this a complete joke after we reported that after Brisbane she was in Melbourne early training and looked completely fine (she only twisted her ankle).
Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Brisbane International with an ankle injury. Williams suffered the injury in her second round match with Bojana Jovanovski.
I have been to hospital and it has been confirmed that I have a left ankle sprain that I probably shouldn’t play on. I’m going to take a couple of days off – not too many – and see how I feel. I’m still hopeful of playing the Australian Open.
Im sure Williams will rest up and have a lot of physio leading up to the Australian Open 2012 and hopefully she will be ready.
After hurting her left ankle at the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo, Japan earlier this year, Maria Sharapova has decided to withdraw from the Brisbane International.
Sharapova told tournament officials that she’s just not 100% ready yet to compete at the top level. However, it shouldn’t hinder her chances of appearing at next year’s Australian Open. This would have been Maria’s first appearance at the event after she committed to it earlier this year instead of reappearing at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand
This injury has been quite the obstacle for Sharapova in her previous two tournaments, the first being the China Open where she was forced to retire and of course the Year-Ending Championships in Istanbul, where she retired after losing her first two matches in the round-robin stage.
The Australian Open begins on Jan 16th and we hope Maria will make her comeback there with favorable results.
As I was going through the US Open Men’s Singles draw earlier today, I happened to notice that there were what appeared to be a high amount of in match retirements. What I found was that through the completion of the first round and half of the second round there have been a total of six in match retirements. This equals the highest single year total from at least 2005 and it is only the second round. That means that there have been more in match retirements in the first two rounds of the 2011 US Open than any of the past six tournaments at Flushing Meadows.
Three of these retirements have interestingly come from qualifiers (Niland, Sorensen, Dancevic) including Novak Djokovic’s first round opponent, Connor Niland, who retired after just over 40 minutes due to food poisoning. It is extremely unfortunate to have to grind out three tough qualifying matches on the outside courts the week before the Open and then succumb to injury in the first round of the Main Draw.
I think this high occurrence of retirements is more easily explained by simply citing that a coincidence has occurred as there no evidence that these retirements are somehow connected due to some uncontrollable variable such as heat or humidity.
With over a week left before the final major of the year reaches this conclusion, don’t expect many more r’s in the draw as every match is do or die in the final grand slam of the year.
It is always a shame to see players retire in a tournament, let alone a Grand Slam event. Kei Nishikori is a very popular player who has had to pull out of the US Open 2011 with a lower back injury.
Flavio Cipolla was leading 6-4, 6-2 on Monday when Nishikori retired.
Im sure Nishikori will be back at the US Open and hopefully next time he can improve his preparation for the tournament and make sure he doesnt get injured.
After enduring a shoulder injury against Andy Murray in the final of the Cincinnati Masters and having to retire at 6-4 3-0 down, Novak Djokovic used a method of healing that is highly unorthodox for most athletes.
He has stated in the WSJ that he is using a a machine called the hyperbaric chamber in which, a person stays inside in order to compress the muscles at rhythmic intervals. The machine does this by simulating an environment that has high altitude.
The machine in question is called the CVAC Pod which is made by CVAC Systems. It costs $75,000 and the company which makes it, claims that a mere 20 minutes in the pod three times a week can boost athletic performance by drastically improving circulation, boosting red-blood cells, removing lactic acid and maybe aid in stem-cell production.
CVAC Systems CEO Allen Ruszkowski also claims that the technology may be twice as effective at helping the body absorb oxygen as blood doping, which we all know is banned as a performance enhancement. Strangely enough, other athletes are said to use the pod. Ruszkowski said they do so “because they feel it’s a competitive advantage.”
During the current US Open tourney in New York held for the next two weeks, Novak is said to be staying at the New Jersey home of former pro Gordon Uehling, who apparently houses this futuristically innovative machine. Some current clients of another former touring pro Geoff Grant, who have tried the machine “say it’s like a drug. It’s weird—it’s definitely something from the future.”
Current number one in the world Novak Djokovic had this to say about the new miracle-working gadget. ”I think it really helps—not with muscle but more with recovery after an exhausting set,” Djokovic said. “It’s like a spaceship. It’s very interesting technology.”
Whether or not this thing really works, which will be quite interesting to examine especially with Novak’s US Open campaign getting started this week, it is a very interesting concept of another step being taken in medicinal technological advances and only time will tell whether or not the “pod” is going to be a more favorable method of healing injuries and recovering from strenuous hours of work on the playing field for other top athletes.
What do you think about this revelation from Novak? Will it become the new go-to trend for athletic therapy? Comment below.
The injury list for the US Open is growing by the day, so it is going to be a very interesting tournament. The only top male player not on the list is Roger Federer.
Womens injuries so far:
Former world number one Andy Roddick has withdrawn from the Rogers Cup which is also known as the Montreal Masters. Andy has cited that he has an injured oblique muscle, making it the second week in a row that Roddick withdrew from an event. Roddick has been bothered by injuries over the past two years, and was forced to pull out of Roland Garros about two months ago with a shoulder injury.
A local Montreal newspaper also reported that world number five Robin Soderling has also withdrawn from the event with a wrist injury. Among others who have opted out of the tournament include Jurgen Melzer (quad), and Xavier Malisse (personal).
After losing in the 3rd round of Wimbledon to Feliciano Lopez and then playing Davis Cup, Roddick has not played since and was forced to withdraw from this week’s tournament in Washington. Luckily, he hasn’t got any points to defend at Montreal since he has also pulled out from from the tournament last year. He should be able to compete at the Cincinnati event the week after Montreal and has sent a message about his return on Twitter: ”Hopefully I’ll be ready for cincy in 10 days or so…. Fingers crossed.” Let’s hope Andy will make it to the Cincy event since he does have 360 semifinal points to defend there, and also will make an appearance at the new tournament in Winston-Salem, NC just before the last Grand Slam of the year (US Open).
Well, it is a pity that some of the best players in the world have cancelled their appearance at Montreal but there are still plenty more great players who should make up for it.
Andy Roddick has had to withdraw from the Legg Mason tournament with a grade 2 strain or partial tear of the oblique abdominal muscle. The injury was suffered in practice, but hopefully it wont keep him out for upcoming tournaments and the US Open 2011.
“Make no mistake; it’s disappointing to lose a player of Andy’s caliber, especially in light of his success and many years of participation throughout his career here in DC,” said Tournament Director, Jeff Newman.
We just talked about Zhang being out with illness, now its David Ferrer’s turn. David Ferrer will be out for 2-3 weeks with a hairline fracture in his left hand. There aren’t too many details about the injury, but he will be fit in time for the US Open.
Expect him to be a tough player to beat at the US Open 2011.
Tommy Robredo was one of the players expected to do very well at the Swedish Open. However, Tommy has had to retire from the tournament with a left thigh injury.
Tommy lost the first set 7-5 to Filippo Volandri and it was 5-5 in the second set when he had to call it quits.
Now the draw has opened up very nicely for Volandri.
Caroline Wozniacki has been forced to retire from the Bastad Tournament with a Shoulder Injruy. Wozniacki was leading Sofia Arvidsson 6-2 0-1 when she had to retire.
There arent a lot of details at this stage, but once we get more we will let you know.
David Nalbandian has really had a tough run in recent times with injury. Nalbandian was previously out for over a year with a hernia and hamstring tear and it now seems as though he is going to be out of action for a lot longer. Nalbandian now has an adductor (groin) injury that bothered him in his Wimbledon match against Roger Federer. Additionally, the haematomia is very visible and associated with his abdominal hernia operation.
I hope this isnt the last we see of David Nalbandian on court!
