Canas, Schalken out of Wimby!

[gugafanatic]

Argentine seventh seed Guillermo Canas and Holland's Sjeng Schalken have pulled out of Wimbledon.
Canas was the seventh seed at the All England Club, while Schalken has reached the last eight at SW19 for the last three years.

Olivier Rochus moves to 33rd seed and takes Canas' place in the draw.

Lucky losers Paul Goldstein and Daniele Bracciali will replace the two players - who have not revealed the reasons for their withdrawal - in the men's field.

Canas and Schlaken seem to be in perfect health in their respective tournaments prior to Wimby. Perhaps Canas does not have the patience for grass and Schlaken due to poor form is pulling out to save further embarassment.

 

[Max G.]

I would assume that these are genuine injuries.

1) Canas - though he's a claycourter, he's played wimbledon pretty consistently. He's also had some wins on grass, such as in the past week. If he "didn't have the patience for grass," that would have been decided earlier - he wouldn't have waited 'till the last minute, I don't think.

2) Schalken - I'd find it strange to think that a player like him would "pull out due to poor form to save further embarrasment." Maybe a top player like Agassi or Sampras - but someone low-ranked like Schalken needs the ranking points. Besides, if Schalken wants to get back to the top of his game, what he wants is match practice. He missed the end of last year with illness, and this year he just hasn't been the same yet; but I don't think that would cause him to skip tournaments. Entering is a win-win situation for him - the worst result is if he loses first round, which isn't any worse than not playing, and if he doesn't lose first round - well, good for him then! ...actually, I think it depended on who he was playing - maybe if he was drawn to play a high seed then maybe that idea would have some merit... I'd doubt it though, it seems unlikely to me.

I guess we'll have to wait for the official explanation, I dunno what the deal is.

That doesn't change much about the draw, except for making the wide-open third quarter even more wide-open without Canas.

 

[West Coast Ace]

Tend to agree with Max about Schalken. Players going bad will definitely play at tournaments where they've had past success. Sometimes it can jumpstart their games. And he's been a solid pro for too long - deserves the benefit of the doubt.

 

[martin]

For your information. Schalken is injured. He was playing the ordina open with some kind of injury which limited his movement. He just played because he is the ambassador of the tournament. From last year till this period he has been injured all the time.

 

[BERDI4]

Cañas has a wrist injury. The same one he had surgery last year, which left him out for a year. He was getting prepared for Wimbledon. His game is not bad for grass, he got to the 4th round in Wimby and reached the finals of Ordina Open 2 years ago. Also, he has to play the Davis against Australia on July on grass. So obviously he's not faking.

 

[Boja]

I'm disappointed, Canas is my favorite player and I thought he had a pretty good draw, although he'd have to face Mirnyi in the 2nd round. I hope that wrist injury isn't too serious, it took him out for a while before and as we all know, wrist injuries aren't the best injuries to have.

It's too bad about Schalken too, he's an interesting player to watch simply because he's so unique in his playing style. I also want to see Verkerk come back, it's almost been an entire year since he's played.