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Baltacha cools injury fears after Eastbourne withdrawal

Elena Baltacha expects to play in the Eastbourne doubles © Getty Images

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Elena Baltacha was forced to pull out of her match with fellow Brit Laura Robson at the AEGON International on Sunday due to injury.

Baltacha was unable to fulfil the qualifying clash in Eastbourne, but is confident she will be fit enough to take part in the doubles alongside Anne Keothavong later this week.

"I'm very disappointed because I was really looking forward to playing Laura," Baltacha said. "My neck was really sore during practice earlier today and the even though the WTA physios worked hard to try to get me ready to play, in the end I had no choice but to pull out of the match.

"It's a tough one to take because I've had some bad luck with injuries over the last few weeks but the good news is that it doesn't seem to be too serious and hopefully I can still play doubles with Anne later in the week."

Former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic has also withdrawn from the Eastbourne tournament because of a groin problem sustained at the French Open.

In other news, Ashleigh Barty and Melanie Oudin have both been awarded wild cards for Wimbledon.

Jelena Jankovic completed two victories on Sunday - beating Misaki Doi 6-3 6-4, then Zheng Jie 6-7(2) 7-5 6-1 - at the AEGON Classic to set up a final against Melanie Oudin, who overcame Ekaterina Makarova 6-4 3-6 6-2, which will take place on Monday. The tournament has been disrupted due to bad weather.

Meanwhile, at the Gastein Ladies event in Austria, Alize Cornet claimed her first title in four years as she saw off Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets. The world No. 73 came through two tight sets to clinch a 7-5 7-6(1) victory at Bad Gastein for her second career title, four years after winning in Budapest back in 2008.

Cornet grabbed a late break to take the opening set and despite letting a 5-3 lead in the second slip from her grasp, she held firm to take the match on a tiebreak.

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