Stan Wawrinka retires hurt in Marseille

Marseille [France], Feb 23 (ANI): Second-seed Stan Wawrinka's comeback from a six-month injury lay-off suffered a major blow as he hobbled out of the Open 13 after retiring hurt during his second round clash against Ilya Ivashka of Belarus here on Friday.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka was trailing 4-6, 1-1 to the qualifier when he was forced to quit from the ATP 250 event due to an injury problem.

Ilya Ivashka will now lock horns with Nicolas Mahut of France in their quarter-final clash of the tournament.

Earlier, Wawrinka was initially seen struggling with a knee problem during his first-round loss at the Wimbledon last year. He was subsequently unable to defend his US Open title and missed the rest of the season after deciding to undergo knee surgery.

The Swiss star, who has now dropped to 17th spot in the world rankings, made his return at the season-opening Australian Open in January, only to make a second-round exit after losing to American Tennys Sandgren on his return.

He subsequently made it to the semi-finals in Sofia before slumping to an embarrassing defeat to Dutch world No 259 Tallon Griekspoor in Rotterdam last week.(ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI