Defending champion Marcos Baghdatis has been forced to pull out of the Medibank International Sydney tournament due to an injury to his left groin. In a press conference on Monday, Marcos said how ‘disappointed’ he was to be unable to defend his ATP World Tour 250 title in front of his family. Marcos was an impressive winner in Sydney in 2010, dispatching Frenchman Richard Gasquet in straight sets in the final.
However, Marcos and his team decided that playing this year could potentially harm his prospects at the Australian Open, and so the difficult decision was taken to rest his groin. ‘The Australian Open is coming up, and I don’t want to risk making it worse, so I took the decision with my team today not to participate’.
Marcos now has a week to rest and prepare himself for the Australian Open, where he will look to improve upon his performance last year, when he reached the third round and was forced to retire against Lleyton Hewitt.
Watch a video of Marcos’ press conference here.
