Tennis News: Kim Clijsters, Francesca Schiavone, Samantha Stosur, amongst many to miss Fed Cup semi-final
The 2011 Fed Cup semi-final ties are due to be played in the mid of April but a number of big names in professional tennis world are missing the big event for their country. World number two Kim Clijsters, fourth ranked Francesca
Schiavone and world number five Samantha Stosur are among the top class players missing out the Fed Cup ties this time round.
Belgium got a heavy blow when Kim Clijsters announced that her medical staff has advised her to take a lay off from professional tennis for at least one month. She has been continuously bothered by her injured right shoulder and
wrist since the Australian Open and declined to play the Fed Cup for the sake of rest.
“The Fed Cup is something I was really looking forward to, but I felt that something was out of the ordinary,” Clijsters told the press reporters on Tuesday, “There were too many minor ailments, one after the other, which did not
seem to disappear. Something like that gets into your head.”
Since the former world number one Justine Henin of Belgium had already taken retirement from tennis earlier this year, the Belgian squad will be depending upon the expertise of the 23rd ranked Yanina Wickmayer and the
veteran Kirsten Flipkens in the Fed Cup semi-final against Czech Republic. The strong Czech team is led by Petra Kvitova, Lucie Safarova, Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
The three time winner of the Fed Cup, Italy has to compete against the strong Russian Squad in the semi-final. The sad news came when the Italian spearhead, world number four Francesca Schiavone announced her absence from the Fed
Cup. The crisis for the Italians became even worse when the 20th ranked Flavia Pannetta injured her shoulder to rule out of the event. Alberta Brianti, Maria Elena Camerin, Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci will now fight to defend the title for Italy.
The Russians have already been proclaimed to be the favourites to win the tournament with their star-packed squad. The Russian team will be led by the world number three, Vera Zvonareva, along with Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova and Ekaterina Makarova.
The world number five Samantha Stosur of Australia is the other big name not taking part in the Fed Cup this month. The Aussie opted out of playing for Australia in the World Group playoff against Ukraine to focus on the clay court
season. Stosur’s form in Fed Cup has not been impressive at all as she lost both of her rubbers against Italian squad in the opening round of the tournament. Jarmila Groth, Jelena Dokic, Anastasia Rodionova and Sophie Ferguson will represent Australia in the
clash against Ukraine.
Tags: