Karolina Pliskova Withdraws from Prague Open

World no. 5, Karolina Pliskova withdraws from Prague Open due to a viral illness. Pliskova was drawn as no. 1 seed in Prague but it was announced on Monday that the Czech will not be able to participate at the Prague Open 2019.

Pliskova was scheduled to play the  German Mona Barthel in the first round of their home tournament on Tuesday.

Karolina Pliskova said that she has been struggling to hit the court for over a month and hasn’t been able to practice. She was also going to pull out of the Stuttgart Open but decided to give it a try. The 27-year-old was defeated by Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 in the round of 16 of the Stuttgart Open.

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced on Twitter on Monday, “Karolina Pliskova has withdrawn from Prague due to a viral illness. The Czech struggling with her health since the Miami Final was on antibiotics for two weeks. Said in Stuttgart she was unable to train in the full for the clay so far.”

After the withdrawal of the no. 1 seed Karolina Pliskova, Barbora Strycova replaced her into the main draw of the Prague Open. Barbora Strycova has been drawn as the 9th seed and will play Mona Barthel in the first round.

Barbora Strycova and Mona Barthel would be meeting each other for the 8th time in their career. The German leads their head-to-head 4-3. The two will be playing each other for the second time here in Prague. The most recent and the only previous clay encounter between the two was also in Prague in 2017. Mona Barthel came out to win the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 after losing the first set. The victory also broke a streak of three victories for Barbara Strycova from 2012.

Karolina Pliskova started the season impressively with winning the first tournament of the season at the Brisbane International. But It will be interesting to see how Karolina Pliskova prepares for the Roland Garros after a poor start to the clay season.