Lucie Safarova has had to withdraw from the upcoming Australian Open due to a bacterial infection which also forced her to miss out on this week’s Hopman Cup where Karolina Pliskova took her place.
This will be the first Grand Slam in almost a decade (Wimbledon 2006) that the Czech player misses out on and her absence will also affect the seedings as Venus Williams will push up and take the number eight seeding, which makes a huge difference come the quarter final round.
“I still felt pain in my joints. My recovery got complicated in the last few days and so I was unable to train and head to Australia well prepared. That’s why I opted to rest and recover gradually”, stated Safarova in a press release.
The left-hander could make her first appearance of the season in the Fed Cup tie against Romania in February, when the Czechs will get their title defence underway in Cluj. “If everything goes perfectly that will be my first event, if not I will aim to return on the American swing”, concluded Safarova.
