Viral illness keeps Caroline Wozniacki out of Dubai event while three seeds tumble out

WTA Tour
Caroline Wozniacki upset

Former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki has for the second week in a row been forced to pull out of a tournament due to illness.

The Dane hasn’t played any competitive tennis since the Australian Open as she withdrew from last week’s Qatar Open due to a viral illness and the same issue is preventing her from playing at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

“It sucks. I’ve gotten ready to play these two weeks (Doha and Dubai) where I usually play well,” she said.

The 2018 Australian Open champion added: “If I can’t even play at a reasonable level, there’s no reason for me to go out there and just play one set – I want to go out there and I want to win.”

She was replaced in the draw by Polona Hercog, but the Slovenian lost 6-3, 6-2 against Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland.

Julia Goerges from Germany was the biggest casualty as the 13th seed suffered a 6-4, 7-5 defeat at the hands of American Alison Riske.

The 15th seeded Anett Kontaveit also fell at the first hurdle as the Estonian was dumped out by Shuai Zhang with the Chinese player picking up the 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory.

Just days after winning the Qatar Open, 16th seed Elise Mertens was brought back down to earth as she was beaten 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 by Chinese qualifier Zhu Lin.

Former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko also crashed out as she lost 6-4, 6-0 against American Jennifer Brady, but 14th seed Caroline Garcia is still in the draw as the Frenchwoman beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-0.

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