Brisbane International wide open after Sharapova, Halep pullouts

The Brisbane International women's draw was thrown wide open Tuesday after defending champion Maria Sharapova and top seed Simona Halep both withdrew with injuries before their opening matches.

Sharapova, the third seed, pulled out with an arm injury before an Achilles problem forced Halep to announce her withdrawal.

Both women stressed the injuries would not affect their Australian Open preparations, saying their decisions to pull out were strictly precautionary.

Organisers were left scrambling to replace the injured pair, with two qualifying lucky losers getting main draw places.

Sharapova's first round opponent, Ekaterina Makarova, took full advantage of the third seed's absence, beating fellow Russian Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Halep had a first-round bye and was due to play former world number one Victoria Azarenka, from Belarus, in the second round.
Azarenka will now play Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure.

Eighth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci cruised into the quarter-finals when she demolished Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, 6-1 and will now likely play Azarenka in the last eight.

Vinci said she was full of confidence after beating Serena Williams on the way to last year's US Open final.

"I'm confident right now, I'm 15 in the world right now and trying my best to reach the top 10," Vinci said.

"This is my goal. I know it is not easy, but I would like to enjoy this year, no pressure, try my best, improve every single day, every single tournament."

She said she wasn't worried about a possible clash with Azarenka.

"I've got nothing to lose, of course," she said.

"I'm happy that I won two great matches already. So there's no pressure -- just play my game."

Vinci was joined in the quarter-finals by Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who downed Frenchwoman Alize Cornet in three sets 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
Sixth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro advanced when she subdued local favourite Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4.

In the men's draw, sixth-seeded Belgian David Goffin was impressive in his 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, while Serb Viktor Troicki downed Steve Johnson of the US 7-6 (7/3), 6-1.

Eighth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria beat Australian wildcard James Duckworth 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Czech veteran Radek Stepanek thumped young Serb Dusan Lajovic 6-0, 6-3.

Croatia's Ivan Dodig was too strong for 17-year-old Australian qualifier Oliver Anderson 6-3, 6-2, while Frenchman Lucas Pouille battled past Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Source: AFP