Injured Safina quits tennis

FORMER World No 1 Dinara Safina has retired from tennis, according to her brother Marat Safin.

In May, Safina took an indefinite break from tennis in hopes of recovering from chronic back pain. “She can live a daily life, but can’t do sports anymore,” said Safin, who added that his sister will take her time before deciding what to do in the future.

Safina turned pro in 2001 and won 12 titles on the WTA Tour. She first became No 1 on 20 April, 2009, and spent 26 weeks at the top of the rankings. Her back first became a problem in 2009 and she dropped out of the top 20 by the end of 2010. Safina won silver at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and was a losing Grand Slam finalist on three occasions.

Meanwhile, current No 1 Caroline Wozniacki suffered a humiliating 3-6 6-0 7-6 defeat to Italian Flavia Pennetta in the China Open quarter-finals.

Former women’s world No 1 Ana Ivanovic became another high-profile player to exit the tournament when the Serbian retired from her quarter-final against Agnieszka Radwanska with back problems.

Men’s top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga powered past Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-4 to set up a semi-final with third seed Tomas Berdych, who thrashed Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-0. Marin Cilic beat Kevin Anderson 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 and Ivan Ljubicic also reached the last four with a 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 win over Mikhail Youzhny.