Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova was struck with some bad luck as she was forced to retire from her first round with Alisa Kleybanova due to gastro intestinal illness.
The 10th seeded Cibulkova, who lost both her Fed Cup singles matches last weekend to Germany’s Andrea Petkovic and Angelique Kerber, was the first Slovakian player (male or female) to reach a Grand Slam final when she made the title match in Melbourne last month, taking out four seeds en route.
She had the stronger start against Kleybanova, who has risen to No180 in the world since her return from cancer treatment, and broke the Russian for a 3-1 lead.
Cibulkova called for the trainer after the fifth game and was seen taking some pills. She then held for a 4-2 lead but Kleybanova broke back to level at 4-4 and two games later, the world No13 threw in the towel and retired from the match.
“I was really looking forward to playing this week in Doha,” said Cibulkova. “Unfortunately I became very sick today and suddenly did not feel well. I wanted to give it a try today and I did everything I could to try to play, but I could not continue.”
Klara Zakopalova, who played five sets on clay on Monday in the rain-postponed Fed Cup tie between Czech Republic and Spain in Seville, put in a monumental effort to beat Elina Svitolina in the Doha first round less than 24 hours later.
Her compatriot Lucie Safarova also battled past the same circumstances to take out No16 seed Kirsten Flipkens 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in 128 minutes.
Italy’s Karin Knapp was perhaps the biggest Fed Cup trooper of them all.
She won two points for her country against the United States in Cleveland, arrived in Doha at 11:00 yesterday and managed to win her first round against Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-1, although she needed seven match points to secure a second round meeting with No5 seed Jelena Jankovic.
