BRISBANE AUSTRALIA HAS BEEN HIT WITH RAIN AND BAD NEWS WITH MARIA SHARAPOVA & SIMONA HALEP INJURY WITHDRAWALS ON THE LADIES SIDE BY 10SBALLS GLOBAL CHICK

Written by: Global Chick on 5th January 2016

Brisbane International Tennis Tournament

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Elena Vesnina of Russia in their first round match of the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament in Brisbane, Australia, 04 January 2016. EPA/DAVE HUNT

epa05087645 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Elena Vesnina of Russia in their first round match of the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament in Brisbane, Australia, 04 January 2016. EPA/DAVE HUNT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

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So jetlag is losing, but the weather is winning as continuous wet stuff leaked from the skies in the morning and with it a slew of bad news all round for the WTA.

First up was the withdrawal of defending champion Maria Sharapova from the Brisbane Open. A left forearm injury sees her injury woes of last year continue, and with the Australian Open around the corner, not to mention big-heap points to defend, this is the worst possible news for the five-time Slam champion.

In a statement, she said that she hurt her forearm in practice a couple of days previously and as a precaution, decided to withdraw to give herself some chance to make the Australian Open line-up.

Sharapova was the third seed, behind Romania’s Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza, and was the finalist at the Australian Open last year, losing to Serena Williams.

That’s ok – we still had the prospect of World No. 2 Simona Halep against the danger-in-the-draw Victoria Azarenka – this was our match-up to savour. Not for long, as hot on the heels of Sharapova’s departure was Halep’s own exit, stage left, with a left leg injury, picked up in practice.

In a matter of an hour what was the pick of the women’s tournament draws for the season opener imploded, but the way is clear now for Azarenka to certainly capitalise at the top of the draw, and perhaps for Belinda Bencic to make the most of the second quarter chaos.

The same precautionary measures for the scrambling Romanian? Not quite – she has been struggling with this since last year, and is also the top seed in Sydney next week.

She said: “I had problems with my Achilles in August/September, and then I didn’t feel anymore. But now I have couple of weeks already again with the pain. I thought that I’m ready to play. I came here, you know, like I want to play, to start the year here, but I cannot have a full match, and I thought that it’s more important to be ready and to take a break a little bit.”

With that withdrawal the energy of the place evaporated as the rains continued to steadily pour over the day. Doubles were in trouble as matches were cancelled – it felt almost Wimbledon-esque for a while, but without the grass and the Pimms.

If ever there was a day that needed salvaging with the magical and restorative powers of Roger Federer, it should have been this one, and the Brisbane crowds will need to wait just a little longer to see the last standing defending champ on show as pretty much everyone else hits the courts tomorrow.

On the ATP side, second seed Kei Nishikori plays second in the day and the night session is held over just in case Bernard Tomic gets the job done in tonight’s night match, with Garbiñe Muguruza taking the top honours.

With the top half of the draw blown completely wide open, the way is clear for this charming Spaniard to start the season with silverware.

Potential fun oddity of the day though will be doubles with Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishikori – the pretty and the speedy may suffer the awfully inclement weather we are having here though, as doubles has been scattered hither and thither so far, causing us all to gaze wistfully at a variety of weather apps. This is the Sunshine Coast, right?

Topics: 10sballs.com, Brisbane Tennis, global chick, Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep, Tennis News, Victoria Azarenka, Wta