Caroline Wozniacki has withdrawn from the French Open with a right ankle injury; the same injury that has seen her miss all of the clay court season so far.
It will be the first major Wozniacki has missed since the 2007 Australian Open, when she was not ranked high enough to enter the competition.
Withdrawal another blow for Wozniacki
2016 has been extremely disappointing for the former world number one, and her withdrawal will certainly be the biggest blow in a rough season so far.
Wozniacki lost in the first round at the Australian Open, falling to Yulia Putintseva, and her other results on the hard courts were fairly unspectacular, with the highlight being a semifinal appearance at the ASB Classic at the beginning of the season.
However, it is the right ankle injury she picked up during a training session in preparation for the clay season that has thrown her season into jeopardy.
Since the injury, Wozniacki has dropped out of the top 30, for the first time since 2008, after failing to defend her finalist points at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and her quarterfinal points at the Mutua Madrid Open from last season. The Dane also had to withdraw from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
Implications in Paris
Wozniacki’s withdrawal has had several implications for Paris.
Naturally the Dane will be unable to defend her points from last year, though this is a very little amount after a second round loss to Julia Goerges last season.
Perhaps most significantly, it means that Jelena Ostapenko rises to become the 32nd seed in the French capital; it will be the first time that the young Latvian is seeded at a Grand Slam tournament.
Meanwhile, Monica Niculescu, who started the day just outside the seeded positions, will now be the 31st seed, following the withdrawals of both Wozniacki and Belinda Bencic.