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Moya out Former No. 1 withdraws due to back injury
Posted: Monday January 17, 2000 10:31 AM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Former world No. 1 Carlos Moya withdrew Monday from the Australian Open due to a recurrence of the back injury which forced him to retire from last year's U.S. Open. The 1998 French Open titleist said he didn't want to risk further damage to a stress fracture of his vertebrae by playing in the best-of-five set Grand Slam format without adequate practice. "It's the same problem I had at the U.S. Open -- the difference now is that I'm feeling a lot better," he said. "The main problem is that I did not practice too much." "If this tournament was best-of-three sets, maybe I will try to play. But after hitting half an hour -- the longest practice I had lately -- and suddenly start playing best of five sets with such a hot day would be really difficult for me. I didn't want to take such a risk." Moya was scheduled to play Marc Rosset of Switzerland in a first-round match later Monday. He will be replaced in the draw by Britain's Jamie Delgardo, the lucky loser from qualifying. The 24-year-old Spaniard became a favorite with the crowd in Melbourne after reaching the final against Pete Sampras in 1997. He was ousted in the second round here in '98 and the first round last year. He reached the No.1 ranking in March last year before the back injury restricted him to two tournaments late in the year and his ranking slumped to No. 24.
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