WORLD OF TENNIS – Victoria Azarenka will miss the French Open due to her ongoing left foot injury. Dimitrov and Murray celebrated their birthdays last week. Watson into the Roland Garros main draw and who is playing where this week. Joshua Bosco
Azarenka will miss Paris
Former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka will miss the French Open due to her ongoing left foot injury.
The two time Grand Slam champion took to Twitter for the announcement, saying “Unfortunately I will not be able to compete in Roland Garros this year. Working hard on my recovery & getting back on the court”.
Buon Compleanno!
Two top ATP players celebrated their birthdays in Rome last week: World No.8 Andy Murray turned 27 on Thursday while on Friday Grigor Dimitrov celebrated his 23rd birthday by beating Tommy Haas to reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final.
World No.2 Novak Djokovic, fresh winner of the BNL Internazionali d’Italia, will turn 27 on 22nd May, just three days prior to the beginning of the 2014 French Open where the Serb will try to win his first Roland Garros title, the only Grand Slam trophy still missing from his collection.
Watson makes it to Wimbledon
British No.3 Heather Watson was handed the last spot in the women’s Wimbledon main draw when the entry lists were published last Friday.
The young Brit, currently ranked at No.112 in the world, wasn’t sure of her automatic entry until the last minute as only 108 spots are awarded directly by ranking position in the main draw. She will be joined by fellow Brit Johanna Konta, while British No.1 Laura Robson will miss the tournament as she continues her recovery from a wrist injury.
Andy Murray was the only British player to automatically qualify for the main draw but James Ward and Dan Evans are both expected to receive wildcards when they’re announced in the second week of June.
Who’s playing where
Many Top 50 players have travelled to France and Germany in the week prior to Roland Garros to get themselves ready for the most important clay court tournament of the season.
In Nice World No.11 and top seed John Isner will be joined by Ernests Gulbis, Frenchmen Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Nicholas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin and last year’s winner Albert Montanes. Youngsters Borna Coric and Dominic Thiem have received wildcards while Benoit Paire and Milos Raonic are among the players who have withdrawn before the start.
Top seed Philipp Kohlschreiber leads the field in Dusseldorf, where he will play alongside defending champion Juan Monaco, Marcel Granollers, Andreas Seppi and Jarkko Nieminen. German players Dustin Brown and Tobias Kamke were given wildcards for the tournament while Alejandro Falla withdrew last week.
WTA players will also move towards Paris, playing tournaments in Strasbourg and Nuremberg.
In Strasbourg defending champion Alize Cornet will face tough competition from top seed Sloane Stephens, Andrea Petkovic and Elena Vesnina. Two Frenchwomen, Claire Feuerstein and Pauline Parmentier, have entered the main draw with wildcards while Tsvetana Pironkova and Francesca Schiavone are two of the players who pulled out before the start.
Simona Halep won’t be defending her title in Nuremberg so Angelique Kerber will be top seed in front of her home crowd. The German will certainly be hoping for a better result than in her last three tournaments (Stuttgart, Madrid & Rome) all of which she lost in her first round. Eugenie Bouchard, Klara Koukalova, Elina Svitolina and Caroline Garcia are among the players she will be up against on her way to the trophy.
