Injury forces Elena Baltacha to pull out of Laura Robson clash

Published on 18/06/2012 02:46

BRITISH number two Elena Baltacha was forced to pull out of her second qualifying round tie against countrywoman Laura Robson at the AEGON International at Eastbourne yesterday.

The Scot has a neck injury, although she remains confident she will be able to play in the doubles alongside Fed Cup team-mate Anne Keothavong.

She said: “I’m very disappointed because I was really looking forward to playing Laura. My neck was really sore during practice and, even though the WTA physios worked hard to try to get me ready to play, in the end I had no choice but to pull out.

“It’s a tough one to take because I’ve had some bad luck with injuries over the last few weeks but the good news is that it doesn’t seem to be too serious and, hopefully, I can still play doubles with Anne later in the week.”

Meanwhile, former No 1 Jelena Jankovic, of Serbia, will play Melanie Oudin, of the United States, in the rain-delayed Aegon Classic final after both players won quarter-final and semi-final matches yesterday.

The final at the grass-court warmup for Wimbledon will be Jankovic’s first in ten months. She beat Misaki Doi of Japan 6-3, 6-4 in a quarter-final that took three days to finish because of rain, and then rallied to beat China’s Zheng Jie 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1.

“It’s been a really difficult day at the office but a good one,” Jankovic said. “You spend 12 hours at the site just watching the rain out of the window. Even when it stopped, I still saw the rain.”

Oudin defeated Irina Falconi 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in an all-American quarter-final and then rallied to down eighth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The final will be staged on Monday for the second year in row.

Jankovic has recently been affected by fitness concerns, but she took advantage of Zheng’s physical problems when her opponent took an injury timeout at the end of the second set to have her left thigh heavily strapped.

Jankovic, the 2007 Birmingham champion, will be looking for her first title in more than two years when she takes on Oudin, a former US Open quarter-finalist.

The Serb lost the last time she faced Oudin, at Wimbledon in 2009.