Elena Rybakina to skip big Asian events to nurse back injury

Paris: World No 4 Elena Rybakina on Monday withdrew from the Asian swing of the WTA Tour with a back problem.

She will miss the last two WTA 1000 tournaments of the season in Beijing, which starts next week, and in Wuhan next month.

“Due to an ongoing back injury, I regretfully have to withdraw from the upcoming Asian tournaments,” said the 25-year old Kazakh in a statement on the WTA website.

“While I’ve been working hard on my recovery, my medical team and I have decided it’s best to prioritise my health at this time.”

Rybakina said she hoped to be fit for the season-ending WTA Finals, which features the year’s eight best players in Riyadh on November 2-9.

She is third in the qualifying standings.

“This has been a challenging year,” she said. “My team and I will work on getting me back on the court before the season finale.”

Rybakina won three WTA 500 titles at the start of the season in Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart and reached the finals of the WTA 1000 events in Doha and Miami.

She reached the second round at the Australian Open, the quarter-finals of the French Open and the semi-finals at Wimbledon, but had to withdraw before her second match at the US Open with the back injury.

She has not played competitively since.