Rib injury forces Dementieva out of Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Add Elena Dementieva to the growing list of star players to pull out of the Pacific Life Open.
A right rib injury forced the fifth-seeded Dementieva to withdraw Wednesday from the tournament that is already missing three of the world's top five players. Dementieva has a stress fracture that could sideline her for six weeks.
"I feel very disappointed," the 25-year-old Dementieva said. "I wanted to play here. I was in the final [last year].
"Now I'm going to miss a couple of tournaments," she said.
Dementieva felt soreness while practicing in Moscow last week and has been in constant pain since, making sleeping and breathing difficult. Now she joins No. 2 Justine Henin, No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo and No. 5 Kim Clijsters on the list of top names missing from the 96-player field of the $2.1 million event.
Top-ranked Maria Sharapova, the defending champion, and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova are the top seeds. No. 29 seed Meghann Shaughnessy, who is ranked 41st, is the top American in the field.
Wild card Mirjana Lucic took another step in her comeback after nearly four years away from the game because of personal and financial problems. She earned a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Lindsey Nelson in a first-round match on stadium court.
Lucic, a few days shy of her 25th birthday, said she never doubted that she would return as a great player, but financial difficulties prevented her from hiring a coach and doing the necessary traveling.
Now she plans to "just play from tournament to tournament and play as many matches as I can. Right now, I feel like I just won a Grand Slam. Right now, every match is huge for me."
The 6-foot Lucic, who said she still plays the same "strong, aggressive, powerful" game she did before her absence, will face No. 8 seed Anna Chakvetadze in the second round.
Americans Jill Craybas, Meilen Tu and Shenay Perry were also first-round winners.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
