No. 9 seed Jabeur withdraws from Australian Open with back injury

A back injury has forced ninth-seeded Ons Jabeur to withdraw from the Australian Open before her scheduled first-round singles match. The injury forced the Tunisian, who reached the third round at Melbourne Park last year, to retire from her quarterfinal at a Sydney lead-up event last week.

“I tried everything to be ready and I thought I could have recovered in time to play here,” Jabeur said. “Unfortunately, the pain is still very present and playing in such conditions could jeopardize my whole season.”

She was replaced in the main draw by Romania’s Irina Bara, a lucky loser from the qualifying tournament.

China’s Zheng Saisai was another late withdrawal on the Open’s first day. She was replaced by Nao Hibino of Japan.