Sydney, Auckland: Garbine Muguruza’s preparations for next week’s Australian Open were thrown into disarray when the world No. 3 pulled out of the Sydney International with a thigh injury on Wednesday.
Hours after battling past Kiki Bertens 6-3 7-6 (6) to advance to the quarter-finals, the 24-year-old Spanish top seed withdrew with a right thigh injury.
The Wimbledon champion accepted a wildcard into the tournament after retiring with leg cramps during her opening match at the Brisbane International last week and called for a medical timeout after the third game against Bertens.
Muguruza, however, returned to the Ken Rosewall Arena in full flow, breaking her Dutch opponent twice to surge 5-1 clear, apparently allaying fears of another injury setback ahead of next week’s Australian Open.
Bertens, who had won all three previous meetings against Muguruza in straight sets, recovered one of the breaks to halt her opponent’s march but the twice grand slam winner regrouped to close out the opening set.
Muguruza broke at the start of the second set against the 26-year-old world No. 32 but struggled to impose herself during the key moments, only converting three of 13 break-point opportunities and dropping her serve in the eighth game.
She rallied, however, to seal victory on her fourth match point in the tiebreak when Mertens hit a return long.
“Since the start I felt a little bit my adductor,” Muguruza said after registering her first win of the season.
“I already felt it in Brisbane, so I thought I was going to be much better, but it came back.
“You always have to adapt… Sometimes you don’t need to have a pain. You just want to play a certain style of game or some tactic.
“I figured out that being a little bit more aggressive, shorter points, that might help me and might help me also for my game. So it’s like a winning situation.”
Agnieszka Radwanska, the 2013 champion and last year’s finalist in Sydney, kept her preparations for the year’s first grand slam on course with a 7-6 (4) 6-0 win over teenage American qualifier CiCi Bellis.
The Polish 28-year-old will meet Camila Giorgi for a place in the last four after the Italian qualifier ousted twice Wimbledon and former Sydney champion Petra Kvitova 7-6(7) 6-2.
In Auckland Classic, Argentine Juan Martin del Potro made a confident start to his preparations for the Australian Open with a 6-2 6-4 win over Denis Shapovalov.
Former US Open champion Del Potro hit eight aces to breeze past the 18-year-old Canadian, who hit 20 winners but committed 40 unforced errors.
The 29-year-old second seed, who won the tournament in 2009 in his last appearance, will now be the favourite after top-seeded American Jack Sock was bundled out by unheralded German Peter Gojowczyk.
Del Potro will next face Russian Karen Khachanov, who beat sixth-seeded Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-2 7-6(4), in the last eight.
“I was surprised by the match today,” said Del Potro, who had lost to Shapovalov in Montreal last August. “I didn’t expect to play at this level in the first match of the year.”
