Dinara Safina pulled out of the Sony Ericsson Championships after just two games with a serious back injury on Wednesday, handing the year-end No. 1 ranking to Serena Williams.
Safina said a disc in her lower back was “starting to fracture” and the injury has been bothering her for three months. She said doctors told her she will be sidelined for at least six weeks, and that she may not be fit in time for next year’s Australian Open.
The Russian said she took anti-inflammatory injections to try to defend her No. 1 ranking in Doha.
PHOTO: EPA
“I went yesterday to have injections, cortisone,” she said. “But I just couldn’t handle this pain.”
Safina, the main No. 1 since April, regained the top ranking this week, but her margin over Williams was so slim that the player who performed best in Doha was guaranteed to end the year as No. 1.
Serena won her first match on Tuesday and beat sister Venus 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Wednesday.
Serena, the Australian Open and Wimbledon champ, will end a year as No. 1 for the first time since 2002.
Safina was serving at 1-1 against Jelena Jankovic when she stopped play, walked over to her chair and covered her face with a towel. She then told the chair umpire she could not continue.
She was replaced in the White Group by compatriot and first alternate Vera Zvonareva, last year’s runner-up to Venus Williams.
Serena Williams led Venus by 4-1 and two breaks but let her come back and had to save a match point when serving at 6-5. Serena then took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker and converted her first match point with an ace, 12 minutes past midnight local time in front of a sparse crowd at the Khalifa Tennis Complex.
The tiebreaker was interrupted briefly at 5-3 when a cat ran across the court and had to be chased toward one of the exits.
Earlier, Caroline Wozniacki beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.
■ST PETERSBURG OPEN
AP, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Former champions Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny advanced to the second round of the St Petersburg Open with straight-sets victories on Wednesday.
Youzhny, the 2004 winner, beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2, while Safin, who won consecutive titles in 2000-2001, ousted Richard Gasquet of France 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Safin has almost completed his last season on the ATP Tour. The Russian fired 14 aces and closed the match on his second match point when Gasquet returned wide and long.
In second-round action, second-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4. Hanescu, a semi-finalist last year, reached his first quarter-final in 11 events since July.
Ernests Gulbis of Latvia upset fourth-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (7), 6-3 to secure a spot at the Australian Open.
■VIENNA OPEN
AP, VIENNA
Second-seeded Radek Stepanek stayed on course for his third ATP title this season in beating Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-2, 6-3 to reach the BA Trophy Vienna Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.
In the quarter-finals, the 14th-ranked Stepanek will play either Jurgen Melzer or Dominik Hrbaty, who beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in a first-round match.
No. 4 Philipp Kohlschreiber and No. 5 Nicolas Almagro also reached the last eight.
Kohlschreiber reached his fifth ATP quarter-final of the season when Victor Crivoi of Romania quit their match with a shoulder injury while trailing 6-2, 3-0. The German next plays Almagro, who defeated Wayne Odesnik of the US 6-4, 6-4.
■LYON GRAND PRIX
AP, LYON, FRANCE
Fifth-seeded Julien Benneteau of France and countryman Florent Serra reached the quarter-finals of the Lyon Grand Prix on Wednesday.
Serra upset No. 8 Albert Montanes of Spain 7-5, 6-3, while Benneteau beat qualifier Kevin Anderson 7-5, 6-2.
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