Last season’s Brisbane International runner-up, Alize Cornet, is through to the second round of the 2018 event after her fourth-seeded French compatriot Caroline Garcia withdrew due to a lower back injury at one set apiece.
The fourth-seeded Garcia looked to have control of the contest when she took the first set 6-3, but Cornet returned the favour to send the tournament opener to a deciding set.
Garcia then took an injury time-out to treat lower back soreness and played just one point in the final set before pulling the pin; Cornet advancing 3-6, 6-3 ret after 82 minutes on court.
With Garcia serving to open the third set she retired injured, handing the former world No.11 a passage into the second round.
“I always had some issues with my back,” Garcia said. “At the beginning of the match I felt a pain in my lower back and it was different than it is normally. It was getting worse and worse and in the end I couldn’t really move.
“I will take some rest and with the physio I will improve as fast as I can. But right now I don’t know much.”
Garcia’s ranking surged from No.20 to No.8 in the last two months of 2017 as she beat Ashleigh Barty in the Wuhan Open final, and backed it up to win the China Open the following week, before finishing with a semi-final appearance at the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Garcia hopes the setback won’t derail her Australian Open tilt.
“I mean, it’s in two weeks, so it’s a long time … with the back it’s always complicated,” she said.
Cornet will next face the experienced and big-hitting Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round.
The 35-year-old Croat, a surprise semifinalist at Australian Open 2017, ran away with her match after splitting sets with German Tatjana Maria, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
“The goals are just to win as many matches possible to get back to the top 20, where I used to be,” Cornet said.
“But I’m taking it step by step, and having fun and staying injury-free are the most important things.”