Muguruza loses; Jabeur suffers injury scare days before Oz Open

Garbine Muguruza during her match v Daria Kasatkina at Sydney yesterday. Pic/AFP

World No.3 Garbine Muguruza was sent packing from the Sydney Classic in the quarter-finals on Thursday by clinical Russian Daria Kasatkina, who continued her strong start to the season ahead of the Australian Open.

Muguruza had a first-round bye then had to battle hard to topple 40th-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova, before crashing to Kastakina 4-6, 4-6.

Meanwhile, in-form World No.7 Anett Kontaveit also made the Last-4 after Ons Jabeur, ranked three places below her, retired hurt.

The Estonian won a tight first set 6-4 before the Tunisian called for a medical timeout. After lengthy treatment on her lower back, Jabeur forfeited the match. It is a big setback for Jabeur, with the opening Grand Slam of the year starting on Monday.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever