Dinara Safina is a doubt for the Australian Open after withdrawing from the WTA Championships yesterday.
Safina was forced to retire after just two games of her round-robin match against Jelena Jankovic. A tearful Safina revealed afterwards that she had only been able to play this week after cortisone injections and has been suffering from the injury for three months. She was desperate to finish the year as world number one and had done everything to give herself the chance to do that.
"My body just gave up," the Russian said. "I did everything possible to play here, but I could not handle this pain any more. In my lower back, I have inflammation in the bone. I've been playing on in pain, on anti-inflammatories, on everything.”
Safina will be out for at least six weeks and maybe longer.
The news meant that Serena Williams is once again at the top of the women’s game, something which understandably delighted the American.
However high profile withdrawals like this once again raise the question of whether the women’s tour is still too long ? It has been shortened in recent years, in comparison the men’s tour does not finish for another month.
