Halep back injury- withdraws from Moscow

Simona Halep lost first up to Dominika Cibulkova in Wuhan, then retired with a back injury the following week in Beijing in her opening match against Ons Jabeur.

Now she is a late withdrawal from the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, citing the injured back as the reason.

Why Simona and coach Darren Cahill even countenanced her playing in Moscow is beyond me, with her dodgy back and the WTA Finals in Singapore just a fortnight away - her spot there is already assured, the end of year number one position also now secured.

Wiser heads finally won the day, and the Halep place in the Kremlin Cup main draw, first round bye included, goes to Greek lucky loser Valentini Grammatikopoulou.

More first round results in Moscow 

WTA 

• Alizé Cornet defeated qualifier Natalia Vikhlyantseva 5-7 6-2 7-5
• Dasha Gavrilova defeated lucky loser Vitalia Diatchenko 7-6(5) 7-5
• Johanna Konta defeated Elise Mertens (7) 6-3 7-5
• Kiki Mladenovic defeated wildcard Anna Kalinskaya 6-1 6-3
• Qualifier Ons Jabeur defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-1 6-2
• Qualifier Vera Zvonareva defeated qualifier Irina Khromacheva 6-3 6-3

ATP 

• Benoit Paire defeated Mischa Zverev 7-6(6) 2-6 6-1
• Qualifier Egor Gerasimov defeated Damir Dzumhur (6) 6-1 6-7(5) 6-2
• Evgeny Donskoy defeated Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4 7-6(10)
• Andreas Seppi defeated Martín Klizan (8) 6-1 7-6(6)
• Wildcard Nick Kyrgios (5) defeated Andrey Rublev 6-3 4-6 6-4
• Mirza Basic defeated Malek Jaziri 7-6(4) 6-2
• Lucky loser Ricardas Berankis defeated Denis Istomin 6-4 5-4 (retired)
• Dusan Lajovic defeated qualifier Filip Horansky 6-4 2-6 6-3

ATP Antwerp 

• Albert Ramos-Vinolas defeated lucky loser Stéphane Robert 6-4 6-4
• Qualifier Ilya Ivashka defeated Robin Haase (8) 7-6(5) 7-6(8)
• Jan-Lennard Struff defeated lucky loser Constant Lestienne 6-2 6-3
• Gaël Monfils (6) defeated wildcard Ruben Bemelmans 6-0 6-3
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Guido Pella 7-5 5-7 7-6(5)
• Gilles Simon (5) defeated qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-0 6-4

ATP Stockholm 

• Bradley Klahn defeated Marius Copil 6-2 3-6 6-4
• Tennys Sandgren defeated Lucas Pouille (5) 6-4 6-4
• Qualifier Ernests Gulbis defeated wildcard Mikael Ymer 6-4 6-3
• Fernando Verdasco (8) defeated Matthew Ebden 6-4 6-2
• Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated Alex de Minaur 7-6(3) 6-7(2) 6-1
• John Millman defeated qualifier Alexei Popyrin 4-6 6-3 6-2
• Wildcard Hyeon Chung (6) defeated Taylor Fritz 6-2 6-2
• Lukas Lacko defeated Taro Daniel 6-1 6-4

WTA Luxembourg 

• Julia Goerges (1) defeated Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-3
• Wildcard Fiona Ferro defeated Monica Niculescu 4-6 7-6(6) 6-0
• Carla Suarez Navarro (3) defeated qualifier Kristyna Pliskova 6-3 6-4
• Qualifier Eugenie Bouchard defeated Timea Babos 6-4 6-2
• Andrea Petkovic defeated Alison Van Uytvanck 6-3 6-4
• Katerina Siniakova (5) defeated Johanna Larsson 6-1 6-7(5) 6-0
• Qualifier Belinda Bencic defeated qualifier Arantxa Rus 6-2 6-1
• Kirsten Flipkens (9) defeated wildcard Mandy Minella 6-2 6-3
• Margarita Gasparyan defeated Maria Sakkari (7) 6-1 7-6(4)
• Dalila Jakupovic defeated Kateryna Kozlova 7-6(3) 3-6 6-4
• Dayana Yastremska defeated lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 6-7(10) 7-6(5)
• Wildcard Garbiñe Muguruza (2) defeated Stefanie Voegele 6-4 6-4