Caroline Wozniaki put her participation in the French Open in serious doubt after pulling out of her Warsaw Open quarter-final with Jie Zheng yesterday due to an ankle injury. The 19-year-old Danish player had lost the first set to Zheng 6-3, but then retired from the match after being troubled by her ankle. With the draw for the second grand slam of the season taking place today, and the tournament beginning on Sunday, time is short for last year's US Open finalist to recover and take her place in the line-up.
It is not the first time that her ankle has proven to be a problem. Last month she had to retire from the Family Circle Cup semi-finals in America, having rolled her ankle trying to reach the net. Zheng said she had not been surprised to see Wozniaki, the No 1 seed in the tournament, suffer a recurrence of her injury. "I knew she had a problem with her ankle yesterday," she told the official WTA Tour website.
"My coach told me I should forget about it, though, and just concentrate on myself. I feel lucky to make the semi-finals here, but I wish we could have finished our match today." Zheng's compatriot Ni La also progressed through to the last four, beating Sara Errani 6-2, 6-1. Meanwhile in the men's game, two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Sebastien Grosjean has announced he will retire from the sport at the end of the season.
The 31-year-old Frenchman has been plagued by injuries over the last couple of years and has seen his ranking plummet to 546. Grosjean said: "I am going to stop playing at the end of the season. It is not really my decision, it is my body that has persuaded me it is time to do so." He joined the ATP Tour in 1996 and enjoyed the best spell of his career when he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and French Open in 2001.
He won his only Masters Series title in the same year in Paris. Grosjean was particularly dangerous on grass and made the last four at Wimbledon in 2003 and 2004 having reached the final at Queen's Club in the same years. He helped France win the Davis Cup in 2001 and achieved a career-high ranking of four in 2002. Grosjean has not asked for a singles wild card at the French Open because of his fitness struggles but will play doubles with countryman Richard Gasquet.
In yesterday's action at the Nice Open, Leonardo Mayer shocked fifth seed Marcos Baghdatis to advance to the semi-finals of the ATP tournament. The 23-year-old Mayer, ranked 59, needed three hours to get past the world No 29 from Cyprus 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Baghdatis became the sixth top seed to fall, with Robin Soderling, the top-seeded Swede, going out on Wednesday, along with Thomaz Belluci (four) of Brazil, Spaniard Albert Montanes (six), Germany's Michael Berrer (seven) and Pole Lukasz Kubot (eight).
Mayer will face second seed Fernando Verdasco for a place in the final today. Verdasco was forced to work hard to defeat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 in his quarter-final match. The Spanish world No 9 won the first set with ease. But Stakhovsky battled back impressively and won the second set tie-break to square the match. But Verdasco kept his cool to see off the challenge of his opponent, who is the world No 66.
* Compiled by Graham Caygill, with agencies