Cramps made Sania to retire from Qatar Open
[Thu Feb 21, 2008]Sania exits from the 2.5 million Qatar Open WTA tournament by receiving cramps in her left thigh during the play. She retired from the resulting third set when she was trailing by 2-4 against Olga Govortsova of Belarus. The match ended up in 2 hours and 20 minutes on the centre court.
Sania appeared dominant in the first set. She won the first set by 6-4 breaking two times the Belarusian player Govortsova. In the second set Govortsova saved her match points, which led the set to tie break. However in the tiebreak error prone play by Sania earned the Belarusian to win the set. In the third set, Sania was trailing by 2-4 when she decided to leave the match.
For two times Sania asked for a medical time out after the second set. First for pain in her left shin and secondly for cramping in her left thigh, which finally led her to retire from the match.
After the match Sania said, "It was cramps that hurt me. I was cramping up in my leg, toes and even in my shins. Maybe it was a case of lack of match practice. I was playing my first singles match after nearly four weeks. So, maybe that was the reason I pulled up like that."
"You can't do anything when your body pulls up like this. It all started in the set, which I could have won. However, I would like to apologize to my fans that I couldn't complete my match. She did play better tennis in the second set," added Sania.
