Dokic pulls out due to injury

TENNIS - Hobart: Former world number four Jelena Dokic pulled out of the Hobart International with an ankle injury yesterday…

TENNIS - Hobart:Former world number four Jelena Dokic pulled out of the Hobart International with an ankle injury yesterday and is still to decide whether she will attempt to qualify for next week's Australian Open.

Dokic, who had beaten three players in the world's top 100 in qualifying and the first round at Hobart, was down 5-0 to Italy's Flavia Pennetta in their second-round match when she called for the trainer.

The 24-year-old, who received treatment but was unable to continue, later said she had sustained the injury in qualifying on Sunday and played with it in her first round victory over Martina Müller on Monday.

"I had a good run here and I felt like I was playing well, but against someone like her you need to be able move so much more," Dokic said.

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Dokic, who did not receive a wild card from Australian Open organisers and was considering whether to play the wild-card qualifying tournament beginning tomorrow, said she would need to see how her ankle responded.

"It's not something that's really serious, so hopefully it will settle down . . . I'll have to make a really hard decision on Thursday."

In other matches yesterday, Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva beat Romania's Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-3 6-2, while Eleni Daniilidou of Greece provided the upset of the day with a 6-3 6-3 victory over top seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine. Daniilidou will now meet Australian Casey Dellacqua, who made her first WTA quarter-final with a tough 6-4 4-6 6-1 victory over Russian Anna Lapushchenkova.

India's sixth seed Sania Mirza, fresh from some impressive performances at the Hopman Cup in Perth, advanced to the quarter-finals with 6-3 6-4 victory over Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva.

Auckland:Chile's double Olympic champion Nicolas Massu advanced to the second round of the Auckland Open with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over New Zealand qualifier GD Jones as rain prevented much of yesterday's play.

Jones, the first local qualifier to make the first round of the tournament since 1979, battled gamely but produced too many unforced errors against claycourt specialist Massu, who was a former top-10 player. Massu broke in the ninth game of the first set, then twice again in the second.

He will meet the winner of the match between Finland's 2006 champion Jarkko Nieminen and Belgium's Xavier Malisse.

Seventh-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber converted all five break points he created to beat Michael Russell of the US 7-5 6-2, while Argentine Sergio Roitman beat Czech Lukas Rosol 6-2 7-5.