E-Paper
Clijsters retires in Montreal with injury
US Open champion Kim Clijsters retired from her second-round match at the 1.34 million-dollar WTA tournament here with a left wrist injury.
US Open champion Kim Clijsters retired from her second-round match at the 1.34 million-dollar WTA tournament here with a left wrist injury.
"I'm going to have an MRI tomorrow and we'll see what the doctors say," said Clijsters, who had won the first set against Canadian Stephanie Dubois 6-1 and was trailing 2-3 in the second set when she abandoned the match.
The top-seeded Belgian, who plays right-handed with a two-handed backhand, had already asked for the trainer to tape her left wrist when she led the second set 2-1.
But she fell in the sixth game, breaking her fall with her hands, and decided to err on the side of caution and call it a day.
"From the beginning I could feel that my backhand wasn't right," said Clijsters, who was sidelined for much of 2004 with a career-threatening left wrist injury but rebounded with a storming 2005 season that included her triumph at Flushing Meadows.
"I couldn't get the speed and power that I usually produce in my backhand swing. My wrist felt really tight. I was slicing more to protect it.
"It was hurting, and then I slipped and landed on it in the worst position possible," she said.
Wildcard Dubois, ranked 153rd in the world, next faces Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik.
