Nadal withdraws from Brisbane

Day Three of the Brisbane International was expected to feature Rafa Nadal, but again injury caused his late withdrawal from a tournament, disappointing thousands of ticket holders.

The reason this time a thigh strain.  Nadal felt it necessary to pass on Brisbane to give him the best chance to play in the Australian Open, but given his recent history, doubt must exist for his appearance at Melbourne Park.

Rafa retired from his semi final in the US Open and didn’t play for the remainder of the 2018 season.

He played and lost an exhibition match in Mubadala at the end of December against Kevin Anderson, but cited injury when withdrawing from his 3rd place match against Karen Khachanov.

Having played just a single competitive match since September, Nadal is not in the best shape to contest the AO, even if declared fit to play.

Lucky loser Taro Daniel takes the place of Nadal in the Brisbane main draw, and with a first round bye, plays Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round.

The results from Brisbane:

WTA

Second round 

Aliaksandra Sasnovich defeated defending champion Elina Svitolina (1) 6-4 0-6 6-3

Donna Vekic defeated Kiki Bertens (6) 7-6(5) 1-6 7-5

Ajla Tomljanovic defeated Johanna Konta 6-2 7-6(2)

Karolina Pliskova (5) defeated qualifier Marie Bouzkova 7-5 6-2

Anett Kontaveit defeated Petra Kvitova (4) 7-5 7-6(1)

Anastasija Sevastova (8) defeated qualifier Harriet Dart 6-2 6-0

Quarter Finals are:

Aliaksandra Sasnovich v Donna Vekic 

Ajla Tomljanovic v Karolina Pliskova (5)

Lesia Tsurenko v Anett Kontaveit 

Anastasija Sevastova (8) v Naomi Osaka (2)

ATP

Second round 

Alex de Minaur (7) defeated Jordan Thompson 6-4 6-2

Daniil Medvedev (4) defeated Andy Murray 7-5 6-2

Milos Raonic (5) defeated qualifier Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 7-6(2)

Jeremy Chardy defeated Nick Kyrgios (8) 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3

Qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama defeated Kyle Edmund (3) 7-6(6) 6-4

Grigor Dimitrov (6) defeated John Millman 6-3 6-4

Kei Nishikori (2) defeated Denis Kudla 7-5 6-2

Quarter finals are:

The winner of Taro Daniel and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Alex de Minaur (7)

Daniil Medvedev (4) v Milos Raonic (5)

Jeremy Chardy v qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama 

Grigor Dimitrov (6) v Kei Nishikori (2)