France’s Caroline Garcia has suffered a setback to the start of her new season after retiring from her opening match at the Brisbane International with a back injury.
The fourth seed looked on course early on in the match against 2017 runner-up Alize Cornet. Garcia broke three times during the opening set to clinch a 6-3 lead in just 36 minutes. Then, during the second set, seven games went by without a break before Cornet managed to prevail for a 5-3 lead before levelling the match at one set all. Garcia opted to retire from the match after dropping the second set due to pain in her back.
“I always had some issues with my back,” she told brisbaneinternational.com.au. “At the beginning of the match I felt a pain in my lower back and it was different than it is normally. It was getting worse and worse and in the end I couldn’t really move.
“I will take some rest and with the physio I will improve as fast as I can. But right now I don’t know much.”
Close to tears as she retired from the match, Garcia faces a race against time to be ready for the Australian Open. Which will begin on January 15th.
“I mean, it’s in two weeks, so it’s a long time … with the back it’s always complicated,” she said.
“Especially mine, it’s really something I take care of, so it’s kind of surprising for it to show up like this. But we’ll do the best that we can.”
Cornet, who hasn’t played in a WTA final since her Brisbane run 12 months ago, will take on Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round. The 35-year-old outlasted Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, in just under two hours.
“The goals are just to win as many matches possible to get back to the top 20, where I used to be,” Cornet told The AAP.
“But I’m taking it step by step, and having fun and staying injury-free are the most important things.”
Stosur stumbles
There was disappointment for home fans on the opening day of the tournament. Former US Open champion Sam Stosur managed to win only four games during her 6-3, 6-1, loss to Latvian seventh seed Anastasija Sevastova. The Australian world No.41 only managed to win 35% of her second service points and failed to convert any of her five break point opportunities during the match.
Despite her one-sided loss, Stosur is refusing to be disheartened. Instead, she is focusing on the positives ahead of next week’s APIA International in Sydney.
“I didn’t feel too bad. She played a very good match, she served exceptionally well. Having said that, I had a few break point opportunities and she came up with the goods every time.” Said Stosur.
“There are things you obviously want to do better and things I’ll be working on before I play in Sydney. I’m not walking away thinking ‘Jeez, that was a terrible start’ or anything like that.”
Since making her Brisbane debut in 2009, Stosur is yet to progress beyond the second round of the tournament.
