Muchova Joins Kerber In Withdrawing From Dubai Championships

The second WTA 1000 tournament of the season is happening in Dubai, but some of the high-profile women on tour will not be participating.

Only recently, three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber decided to pull out from the tournament for an undisclosed reason, but now World No. 10 Karolina Muchova has joined her on the absentee list.

Muchova has been nursing a wrist injury since the US Open last September, where she lost in the semifinal to eventual champion Coco Gauff. The Czech put together a career-best season on a tour, which yielded a maiden Grand Slam runner-up finish and a place in the world's Top 10.

She also qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals in Cancun. However, Muchova has not been able to play tennis since leaving New York because of a debilitating wrist injury that kept her on the sidelines for the entire final phase of 2023.

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It looked like she would return in 2024 after signing up to play during the Australian summer. But she ended up pulling out from the star-studded WTA 500 event in Brisbane and the first Grand Slam of 2024 at the Australian Open.

She cited that her wrist was still giving her issues and that the pain was persisting. Muchova is still working hard behind the scenes, training in an effort to return to competition. She remains positive that her comeback will take shape at some point, sooner rather than later.

Last week, she withdrew from the Qatar Open and has now followed suit by skipping the entire Middle East stretch by erasing her name from the Dubai entry list. This will come at a cost, as Muchova is expected to exit the Top 10.

Kerber's place in the main draw had gone to resurgent Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Muchova has now been replaced by four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, who immediately withdrew from the competition too.

Main draw action at the Dubai Championships will commence on February 18th, but the draw ceremony is expected to take place in the next few days. World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka will be among the favorites.

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