World No. 8 Casper Ruud has withdrawn from the Australian Open with an ankle injury.
The Norwegian was set to face Alex Molcan in the first round today with his place taken by lucky loser Roman Safiullin.
Ruud rolled his ankle on Sunday and today said it was “100 per cent impossible” to compete.
“It’s an unfortunate thing that happened in practice on Sunday, I rolled my ankle, I twisted my ankle – it’s something that happened in a split second,” Ruud said.
“Instantly of course I wish it didn’t because of the damage it has done to my ankle. I tried my best to recover, but two days is not usually enough to recover for a rolled ankle.
“I did everything I could, but to be able to play 100% was impossible today. With my tennis and my game I need to be able to move well to play well and that’s the idea – when the ankle is hurting and I cannot move very well then it is tough for me to play well.”
