TORONTO: Andy Murray withdrew from the Rogers Cup because of a knee injury Thursday, the latest top player to pull out of the rain-delayed tournament.
The Olympic gold medalist hurt his left knee Wednesday night during the opening match against Flavio Cipolla. Murray was scheduled to face Canadian Milos Raonic in the third round Thursday night in the event where all singles play was wiped out by rain.
“Normally when I move on to hard courts, I have 10 days or so practicing and you feel things like this, but you can work around it by doing the right training and what not,” Murray said. “I don’t want to go full out and possibly do any more damage. That was why I decided not to play.”
Murray, ranked fourth in the world, said he’s unsure whether he can play in Cincinnati next week or what his status is for the US Open.
“Over the next few days we’ll come up with a plan and strategy to either get myself ready for Cincinnati, or if not, then plan for the best way to prepare for the US Open,” Murray said. “But today I won’t think about any strategies or whatever. It’ll just be about what’s the next move and where do we go from here.”
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal withdrew before the tournament began.
Raonic reached the quarterfinals for the first time in a Masters tournament.
“Obviously, it’s something that I was really looking forward to,” Raonic about playing Murray. “It’s an unpleasant thing, but at the same time it’s a good thing — it’s my first quarterfinal in a Masters and to be at home is pretty special. I guess there’s a give and take with it. I’m playing pretty well, I’m healthy, so it’s a good opportunity and I’m going to make the most of it come tomorrow.”
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic will face Sam Querrey on Friday in one of the postponed matches.
Ivanovic crashes out
of WTA Montreal
Former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic suffered her first ever double bagel loss, crashing out of the WTA Montreal tournament after losing 6-0, 6-0 to Roberta Vinci.
Vinci on Thursday needed just 44 minutes to oust the 11th seeded Ivanovic, who had three game points in the match but never converted.
Ivanovic had game point serving at 0-4 in the first set and two more serving 0-2 in the second.
“I really struggled to find my rhythm out there,” the Serb said. “It came as a surprise a little bit because I was practising really well.
“I was struggling to find my feet and get two consecutive balls in the court. Against players like Roberta who don’t make many errors, it’s always going to be tough to win like that.
“When you’re down 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, the panic starts to set in. I forced a little bit. It was bad already without that. It was really, really tough for me out there.”
Vinci didn’t expect such an easy victory. She came from behind to beat Yanina Wickmayer in the first round.
“It’s not easy to win 6-0 6-0 against a great player like Ana,” Vinci said. “I was playing really consistently with a lot of slice — and she doesn’t like my slice. I think that was the key. I’ve played against her a lot of times, and it was strange to play her when she was playing like this.”
In other matches, Serb Jelena Jankovic fell 6-2, 6-3 to Canadian wildcard Aleksandra Wozniak.
Jankovic has now lost her opening match at 12 of her last 16 tournaments.
“It couldn’t have been better, to be here in front of the home crowd and make the third round at a big tournament like this,” Wozniak said. “I was trying to not give her any rhythm, in fact I was trying to make her make mistakes. I was going for my shots, but I was trying to do as few errors as I could at the same time.”
Other winners Thursday were Carla Suarez Navarro, who surprised No. 15 seed Sabine Lisicki 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and No. 9 seed Marion Bartoli, who cruised past Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-3.
