MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Matteo Berrettini withdrew from his Australian Open fourth-round match against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday due to an abdominal strain, the Italian ninth seed said.
Berrettini suffered the injury during his win against Russian Karen Khachanov in the third round on Saturday. He had a medical time out during the match but was able to continue.
“Abdominal … I felt it during the previous match against Khachanov and it’s worse than I thought so I cannot play,” said Berrettini, who had been due to play Tsitsipas in the final match at Rod Laver Arena on Monday.
The walkover sent fifth seed Tsitsipas into the next round where he will meet Spain’s Rafa Nadal for a place in the last four of the year’s opening Grand Slam.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
