Del Potro sweats on injury

Del Potro: Melbourne doubt

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  • Robin Soderling
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Juan Martin del Potro and Robin Soderling are both doubts for next week's Australian Open after they pulled out of the Kooyong Classic lead-up event.

US Open champion Del Potro, the fourth seed at Melbourne Park, did not appear for his semi-final with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga due to a wrist injury.

The extent of the Argentinian's injury is unknown, although Soderling believes he will be fit for the Australian Open after a recurrence of the elbow tendonitis that plagued the Swede last year.

Soderling retired from his dead rubber with Ivan Ljubicic after losing the opening set 6-4.

"It was better yesterday, today I felt it a little bit more, so I figured I didn't want to take any more risks," he said.

"A lot of times, it gets better in just a couple of days, so with some rest and some treatment, I really hope I will feel good next week."

Demolished

The injury news came as Spain's Fernando Verdasco demolished world number three Novak Djokovic 6-1, 6-2 to book a place in the final of the Kooyong Classic.

World number nine Verdasco, who lost an epic semi-final battle against eventual winner Rafael Nadal in Melbourne last year, needed only 52 minutes to brush aside an out-of-sorts Djokovic, who collapsed in a hail of unforced errors.

I was feeling good today, despite the conditions," Verdasco said, referring to the blustery winds.

"Of course, the result was a surprise. You never go to the court, and even less, with one guy like Novak Djokovic, and you think that you are going to win 6-1 6-2."

"Today I didn't feel good on the court since I stepped in," Djokovic said. "He played well, but I made too many unforced errors and that's it."