It also means Kontaveit will likely drop out of the top 10 by year-end, a year after she broke into that elite group, the first Estonian tennis player ever to have done so.
Following her home tournament in Tallinn earlier this month, where she reached the final, Kontaveit was due to play in three more tournaments: Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, in San Diego, California and in Guadalajara, the last a prestigious WTA1000 tournament reserved for the world’s top 10.
However, after a lower back injury forced her to pull out of round two of the first of these tournaments. against Tereza Martincova, Kontaveit missed the San Diego tournament, and has now announced she will not be playing in Mexico either.
Russian player Anna Kalinskaya will take her place. Kalinskaya is currently ranked 58th in the world.
Strong form towards the end of last season, when Kontaveit won in Moscow and Cluj-Napoca saw the Estonian make the top 10 and reach the Guadlajara tournament, edging out Tunisian player and this year’s Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur in the process.
This season, Kontaveit reached the top five, peaking at number two ahead of Wimbledon and currently ranked third.
She was defeated in the inaugural Tallinn Open final by Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic), and pulled out of her very next competitive match with Martincova, another Czech player who she’d defeated in straight sets a few days earlier in Tallinn, after one game in the second set.
Kontaveit switched coaches this year after cooperation with former player Dmitry Tursunov proved too complex given, as a Russian citizen, he often struggled to get clearance to attend tournaments.
Her current coach is Torben Beltz.
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