02.06.2009 13:09:02 | The seed 1 of the Prostejov Challenger Radek Stepanek did not finish his first match at UniCredit Czech Open due to ankle injury.
The best ranking Czech player trod down badly and had to scratch the match against the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas at the score of 6:2, 1:1 and 15:0. Thus after two victories in Prostejov in years 2003 and 2004 Stepanek will not be able to reach for his third triumph at home.
An expression twisted with pain covered the face of Radek Stepanek as he stumbled to the bench and after a short medical treatment announced about his scratching the match. It is all the more a pity that he took full control of the match from the very beginning and let the striving Uruguayan win just two games.
Right after the match the Stepanek’s ankle was treated and taped by the doctors. “When returning the serve I fell into a whole and my ankle twisted. I felt a terrible pain and knew everything was over at once,” stated Stepanek who was still lying on the massage table with a grazed and swollen ankle. “I have a tennis ball but not in my hand, and only on my ankle,” Stepanek tried to joke and make the situation less serious. Now he needs to get to hospital for magnetic resonance inspection. “I will see how serious it is. It was a great pity, I wanted to show my best at home. The match started excellently for me. But it is all the same now. I have to pull myself together as soon as possible,” added Stepanek. He longed so much for another title at home; in addition to that, the match was played in front of the full auditorium at the central court and from the first exchanges it was visible how motivated Radek Stepanek was and what high quality performance he wanted to deliver in Prostejov.
“It is a great loss for the tournament, I wish Radek to get healthy very soon so that he can tour the tournaments again,” said the director of the tournament Petra Píchalová-Langrová. “It was another piece of bad news for us after we learnt that Andreyev was not able to manage it for his match against Sergeyev.”
