With two weeks to go, this year's first Grand Slam Australian Open will kick off. Chinese fans have special feelings for the Australian Open, and Li Na, Zhang Shuai, Wang Qiang and others have many good memories at the Australian Open. In addition, the australian open date is also very suitable for China, when the "happy grand slam" in the southern hemisphere starts, we are usually happily "celebrating the New Year", this year's Australian Open is held on January 17-30, and the Chinese Chinese New Year's Eve is 31. From the perspective of time difference, Melbourne, where the Australian Open is located, has only a 3-hour time difference with Beijing, and we don't need to watch the game upside down in the morning.
For some players, this year's Australian Open may be the last memory of their careers, some have retired, and others may retire after the end of this year's Australian Open.
Today we will take stock of which famous players have withdrawn from the game and analyze the reasons for their withdrawal.
First there's Federer. Raytheon has won six singles titles at the Australian Open, winning two consecutive titles in 2006-2007 and 2017-2018, and his last Australian Open match was the semi-finals of 2020, losing 3-0 to Djokovic.
Federer has been off the season since last year after stopping at the Wimbledon quarterfinals, of course, because his knee injury has not healed. Given Federer's age and current situation, his hopes of returning to the Australian Open next year will be even slimmer.
Serena Williams, who is the same age as Federer, is also on the australian open retirement list this year. After the first leg injury at Wimbledon last year, Serena has been estranged from the field, and her sister Dawei also withdrew from this year's Australian Open due to a leg injury, which is the first time since 1997 that the Wei sisters have been absent from the Australian Open at the same time. After the withdrawal, it is expected that Serena Serena's ranking will slide from the current 41st to about 200, while Dawei's ranking will continue to decline from 314th.
Also retiring alongside David is Brady, the runner-up in women's singles at last year's Australian Open who will miss this year's Australian Open with a left foot injury, and her retirement allowed Wang Qiang to qualify for the main tournament, while Wang Qiang's qualifying spot was replaced by You Xiaodi.
Last year's Australian Open women's singles final four Mukhova also announced her withdrawal from this year's Australian Open last month, becoming the third player to retire from the last Australian Open women's singles final four after Brady and Serena Williams. Former world number one, 2019 Australian Open women's singles semifinalist Ka Pliskova withdrew from this year's first Grand Slam tournament due to a right hand injury.
Also retiring from the tournament because of a right hand injury is Thiem, who has been in a slump after winning the 2020 Australian Open runner-up and the US Open, stopping the fourth round of the Australian Open last year, stopping the first round of the French Open, and then injuring his right wrist during the first round of the Mallorca, and has been recuperating ever since. Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka also withdrew from this year's Australian Open due to a foot injury, his last match was the first round of Doha last March, the 36-year-old Wawrinka has been away from the field for nearly a year, and he has begun to resume training and is expected to return to the field after the Australian Open.
In addition, herbert Herbert, the 2019 Australian Open men's doubles champion and the world's eighth-ranked French doubles star, will give up participating in this year's Australian Open because he chose not to be vaccinated against the new crown vaccine, becoming the first player to withdraw from the Australian Open due to unvaccinated.
Some have withdrawn due to injury, some have withdrawn from the competition because they have not been vaccinated, and others have withdrawn because they are unwilling to accept the Australian Open's quarantine policy. Hungary's Babos, the 2020 Australian Open women's doubles champion, became the first player to retire due to a reluctance to accept quarantine, saying: "I decided to skip the Australian Open because my career has progressed to the current stage, and making money and honor is not everything. I simply cannot agree with the Australian government's precautionary measures and the quarantine obligations that may be met, as Australia's quarantine approach is prohibitive. ”
In addition to the above reasons, former US Open champion Andreescu withdrew from this year's Australian Open for mental health reasons. Australian local player Stosur will bid farewell to the singles field after this year's Australian Open, and Stosur and Zhang Shuai won the 2019 Australian Open women's doubles championship and the 2021 US Open women's doubles championship, and will continue to partner with Zhang Shuai to participate in the Australian Open women's doubles competition this year.
Finally, djokovic is to be mentioned. According to Serbian media reports, Djokovic, who withdrew from the ATP Cup, is currently training in Mallorca, Spain, and the report revealed a detail that Djokovic's training ball is the Australian Open match ball. The social media account posted Djokovic's training video for AlwaysProud OfNovak fans, a little girl said to Djokovic good luck at the Australian Open, and World Number One replied: "Thank you very much." ”
Australian Open tournament director Craig Terley recently said, "Until this weekend, we will have some charter flights into Australia until all the players will be here. As far as Novak's form is concerned, I think we will have a clearer result in the coming days, otherwise he would have come to Melbourne for the Australian Open very late. There's a lot to do at the moment and I think those things will come into play in the coming days. ”
These indications suggest that Djokovic is likely to be playing at this month's Australian Open, simply waiting for a suitable time to announce that he has been eligible for entry into Australia before quickly departing for Melbourne. (Source: Tennis House Author: Yun Cirrus Yunshu)