BRISBANE: Australian Samantha Stosur’s year ended on a sour note after she was bundled out of her home state tournament by Brisbane International seventh seed Anastasija Sevastova on Sunday.

The former US Open champion and French open finalist had opportunities against her 27-year-old Latvian opponent in the first set, but was completely outplayed by Sevastova in the second set to be eliminated 6-1 6-3 in the first round.

It wasn’t a good day for French world No.8 Caroline Garcia either, after she retired in her first round match against compatriot Alize Cornet. The fourth seed started brightly to take the first set 6-3, but Cornet rallied to claim the second and force a deciding set.

Garcia then took an injury time-out for treatment on her lower back and played just one point in the final set before retiring. Cornet will next play Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round after the Croatian beat Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

Serbian Aleksandra Krunic beat Carinna Witthhoeft of Germany 7-5, 7-6 (2) to set up a second round clash with Spanish top seed Garbine Murguruza.

In the men’s draw Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine beat sixth seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Garcia pulls out

Fourth-seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia was forced to retire with a back injury during her match against compatriot Alize Cornet in the first round of the Brisbane International.

Garcia, who enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2017 when she reached a career-high world ranking of eight, took the first set 6-3 with relative ease.

But Garcia began to struggle with her service game and Cornet stuck back to take the second by the same score.

Garcia then called for the trainer and had extensive treatment for a lower back problem. She returned to the court but after one serve retired in tears, handing 2017 runner-up Cornet a ticket to the second round.

“I always had some issues with my back,” Garcia said later.

“At the beginning of the match I felt a pain in my lower back and it was different than it is normally.

Murray upbeat

Former world number one Andy Murray said on Sunday he was desperate to get back into competitive tennis after a five-month absence due to a debilitating hip injury.

Murray, who is in Queensland for the season-opening Brisbane International, has not played on the ATP tour since losing a tough five-setter to American Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

He said despite some lingering problems with his hip, his body was feeling much better than at the same stage last year.

“I don’t feel like there’s many miles in my legs, which, you know, was certainly the case at the beginning of 2017, where most days I was quite sore kind of all over,” he said.

“Right now the hip is the only thing that is any concern. The rest of my body feels really good.” Murray admitted he wasn’t heading into this tournament or the Australian Open with great expectations. Just because I’ve not played for such a long time,” he said.

“And also I just want to enjoy playing again. I’ve really missed it the last six months or so. I don’t mind if it’s 30 in the world level. I would love it to be number one in the world level, but I just want to play.”

Agencies