The season’s first Grand Slam is all set to begin in Melbourne from 20th of January. However many ATP stars who have been facing constant injury issues have withdrawn from the tournament in advance. We discuss the 3 most famous players who have pulled out of the Australian Open 2020 due to injury issues.
Kei Nishikori
The Japanese star has already conformed that he would not be taking part in the 2020 Australian Open. Nishikori has been suffering from a right elbow injury which has been keeping him out of the tour since the US Open 2019. Nishikori who is currently ranked World Number 16 has been a 4 times quarter-finalist at the Australian Open the most recent of which was in 2019 when he lost in the quarters to the eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
Nishikori who has been to a career high ranking of World Number 4 and also the US Open 2014 finalist has been suffering from frequent wrist and elbow issues since 2017. He even went outside the top 20 in 2017 but was able to make a comeback into the top 10 in 2018. Nishikori would be hoping of getting back to full health in order to take part in the American hard court swing in March 2020.
Juan Martín del Potro
The Argentine star has had one of the most injury affected careers in recent tennis history. The former World Number 3 has been absent from the tour since he fractured his knee at the Queens Championships in June was looking has since been unable to come back to the tour. He was supposed to play the Australian Open under the protected rankings but the man famously known as Tower of Tandil has now decided to skip the Australian Open where he has been twice a quarter-finalist. Del Potro has admitted that the current injury could bring an end to his career.
In India: Politics & Entertainment
Del Potro who won the US Open in 2009 has had a series of injury concerns in the last decade. Soon after the US Open he faced his 1st wrist injury concerns prolonging his absence from the tour and dipping his ranking outside the top 50. The Wrist injury again surfaced in 2014 resulting in 2 years of absence from tennis. Del Potro regained his best form in 2018 when he won his 1st Masters at Indian Wells and also was reaching the later stages of Grand Slam. However first some leg issues and then the knee injury has now almost threatened to end his career.
Andy Murray
The last 3 years have not been great for Andy Murray’s career. The British star who finished 2016 as World Number 1 struggled with form and elbow injury in 2017. However the real scare tuned out in August 2017 when he suffered a hip injury. Murray missed almost whole of the main tour events of 2018 after he had gone through a hip surgery. In 2019 Australian Open an emotional Murray declared the he may probably retire from tennis after this tournament. Murray the lost the epic 1st round match against Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut and the crowd gave him an emotional send-off.
However the star had too much love for the game to go down that easily. He undertook a second hip surgery and slowly took steps towards the tennis court again . Murray first played doubles in 2019 before returning to singles. His 1st singles title came in the European Open in October 2019 generating much of the hopes about his 2020 comeback.
However in November 2019 Murray faced a pelvic injury which forced him out first from the Davis Cup then the ATP Cup and now the Australian Open. The 5 time finalist at Melbourne Park is expected to now come back to the tour in February 2020 and the tennis world hopes to see the Andy Murray of the past once again.