Australian star Alex de Minaur pulls out of Adelaide International due to abdominal injury
First it was Venus Williams and then Novak Djokovic. Now Aussie ace Alex de Minaur has withdrawn from the Adelaide International, citing injury as the reason.
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Top men’s seed Alex de Minaur has withdrawn from the Adelaide International due to injury.
The Australian world No.18 was due to play his second-round singles match at Memorial Drive on Tuesday or Wednesday, having received a bye in the first round.
But he announced just before noon on Monday that he would not be lining up, after re-aggravating an abdominal problem he had dealt with during Australia’s ATP Cup campaign.
It comes after American star Venus Williams and men’s world No. 2 Novak Djokovic also withdrew prior to the tournament, having been billed among its major drawcards.
Really sorry I wasn’t able to play in Adelaide as I was really looking forward to it. 😓😓 @AdelaideTennis https://t.co/qeQZy2jgoQ
— alex de minaur (@alexdeminaur) January 13, 2020
De Minaur cut a dejected figure, as he discussed his reasons for not playing in Adelaide to the assembled media.
But he said it will allow him to focus on regaining full fitness ahead of next week’s Australian Open in Melbourne, where he will be the highest-ranked Australian man.
“Obviously I’m not in the happiest mood,” de Minaur, 20, said.
“But it’s something that happens.
“I aggravated a bit of an ab injury.
“It’s devastating, because it was a part of my schedule for a very long time.
“I was really looking forward to playing.
“But I’ve got to take care of my body.
“My sole focus is making sure I recover for my next one (tournament).”
Spaniard Jaume Munar, a lucky loser from qualifying, will now take De Minaur’s place in the Adelaide draw and advance automatically to round two.
De Minaur was a key member of the Australian team which lost its semi-final tie at the ATP Cup in Sydney on Saturday.
The Sydney-born talent claimed a set off world No.1 Rafael Nadal, before going down to the Spanish great.
He refused to put a timeline on his recovery from the setback, but remained hopeful of featuring at Melbourne Park.
“At the moment we’re going to take it day-by-day,” de Minaur said.
“It’s something that obviously is not ideal.
“At this stage, we’re just looking at sort of short-term goals and trying to get better each day.
“I’ve seen the physios, I’ve seen the doctors.
“I’ll be continuing to do that for the whole of next week.
“Hopefully I’ll be ready to play in Melbourne.”
Meanwhile, Netherlands’ world No.9 Kiki Bertens withdrew from the women’s draw on Monday, citing an achilles injury.
It comes a day after Bertens and Australian World No. 1 Ash Barty fell short in the Brisbane International doubles decider, going down to Barbora Strycova and Su-Wei Hsie.
Bertens was set to play Greece’s world No. 23 Maria Sakkari in round one of the Adelaide International and her withdrawal is yet another blow for the new tournament, which also had Brisbane women’s semi-finalist Petra Kvitova pull out.
Barty will kick off her Adelaide International campaign on Tuesday after going straight through to the second round.