Lena Daniilidou calls it a year due to injury
With the Wimbledon tennis tournament in full swing, Greek champion Lena Daniilidou admitted yesterday that her season is virtually over after the surgery she underwent on her right knee. The player from Crete said she has no chance of making the US Open this summer and that she is making plans for the next Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne, Australia, next January. «The treatment and physiotherapy are going well but I need a minimum of six months to recover, so that rules me out of the Olympics as well. I just have to write off 2008 and hope to be fit for the Australian Open. It’s very disappointing but what can we do? I am a professional athlete and these things happen,» the Greek No 1 told sports website sportingreece.com. Daniilidou suffered the injury during a match with Shuai Peng in Miami at the start of April when she had to retire after just two games. Speaking about Marcos Baghdatis, the Cypriot player who has already advanced to the second round at Wimbledon and is facing Sweden’s Thomas Johansson today, Daniilidou said he could go on and win a major title. «I think it is possible. He is certainly at that level where he can win. He needs a bit of luck but he is up there so, yes, I think Marcos can win a Grand Slam,» she said.
