Kafelnikov’s countryman, Mikhail Youzhny, left his second round Chennai Open match in the middle because of his stomach problem. He was down by 1-3 in the opening set when he started feeling a bit of pain in his stomach and he eventually decided to withdraw himself. Youzhny had come into this tournament as one of the top favourites.
Talking to the reporters later on, the Russian player said, “There was a bit of pain in my stomach and I was uncomfortable out there. I really wanted to finish the match, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t. It was impossible for me to continue playing in that condition.”
“When you can’t move as fluently as you need to, there is no point continuing and ending up on the losing side.”
“I have had this problem since a while now. It had troubled me in Thailand as well. I really want to apologize to the people who had turned up to watch the contest, but, as I said, it was impossible.”
Youzhny had won the Chennai Open 5 years back in 2008. He was up against the Spanish great Rafael Nadal in the final then and not many people were backing him to achieve the glory, but, he had stunned everyone by securing an emphatic win over Nadal.
With Youzhny gone, only a few top class players are left in the ongoing edition of Chennai Open now. One of them is the Swiss star Stanislas Wawrinka who is looking in good form at the moment. He won his second round match against the German player Benjamin Becker fairly easily in the straight sets yesterday. If he keeps playing the way he has been playing, it shouldn’t be that hard for him to go all the way and lift the trophy at the end of the tournament.