Clijsters Unable to Defend Title

Written by: Staff on 12th August 2011

Clijsters Unable to Defend Title

Kim Clijsters of Belgium takes on Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands during their second round match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 26 May 2011. EPA/KERIM OKTEN |

(CINCINNATI) August 11, 2011 — Defending Western & Southern Open champion Kim Clijsters will be unable to defend her title at next week’s tournament due to an injury she suffered playing this week in Canada.

Clijsters retired from her second round match Tuesday in Toronto against Jie Zheng after suffering a left abdominal strain. That injury has forced the 28-year-old defending US Open Champion to also withdraw from the Western & Southern Open.

“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to Cincinnati this year,” Clijsters said. “I will not be ready because of the left abdominal injury that happened during my first round in Toronto. It is very disappointing because I love playing in Cincinnati and I was looking forward to defending my title. And Jada was also looking forward to it.”

The No. 2 ranked player on the WTA, Clijsters was aiming to be the first woman to repeat as champion of the Western & Southern Open since the WTA returned to Cincinnati in 2004. The last player to repeat as Cincinnati champion was Peaches Bartkowicz in 1966-67.

The withdrawal will affect the seeding for the 2011 tournament as each seeded player will move up one spot, helping Marion Bartoli the most as she will become the No. 8 seed and have a first round bye.

Additional player withdrawals from the women’s field include Dominka Cibulkova, Kaia Kanepi and Alexandra Dulgheru. These withdrawals have allowed Ekaterina Makarova, Tamira Paszek, Lucie Hradecka and Anabel Medina Garrigues to join the WTA field.

On the men’s side, Robin Soderling, Ivan Ljubicic, Milos Raonic, Tommy Robredo and Lleyton Hewitt have withdrawn. Replacing them in the field will be Juan Monaco, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ivo Karlovic and Andrey Golubev.

The main draws for the Western & Southern Open will be made at 6 p.m. Friday.

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