{"id":359284,"date":"2024-01-11T21:27:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T22:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359284"},"modified":"2024-01-11T23:01:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T23:01:47","slug":"australian-open-hopeful-breaks-down-after-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359284","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open hopeful breaks down after injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian Open<\/a> hopeful Francesca Jones broke down in emotional scenes, with the English player forced to retire hurt during qualifying for the tournament.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has battled with injuries over the past two seasons, missing out on last year's Roland-Garros, after defying the odds to play professionally due to a number of genetic conditions.<\/p>\n

Jones was born with three fingers and a thumb on each hand, as well as missing two toes on\ufeff her right foot and one toe on her left.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie fan favourite reflects on singles career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> Adelaide striker opens up on globetrotting career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former Melbourne star torches 'selfish' Demons<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Despite her recent struggles, Jones was up 4-0 in the deciding set against Germany's Ella Seidel on Thursday, before being forced off the court with a cramp.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

The issue would continue to flare up throughout the third set and at 4-4 in the third set, she was forced to withdraw from the match and forfeit her opportunity to reach the grand slam.<\/p>\n

Jones was helped from the court in distress and told BBC post-match that her injuries were beginning to have an impact.<\/p>\n

"I will have to take a couple of days off and then regroup," she said.<\/p>\n

"My left leg was completely gone, which obviously affects the serve. It is a chain effect when you cramp. It is pretty challenging at this point because every retirement takes its toll.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"I spent the whole of 2022 injured, played three months at the start of last year, found rhythm and then got injured at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

"I'm doing my best to focus on my objective this year, which is to use it as a constructive year to build tournaments which I haven't managed to do over the last couple of seasons."<\/p>\n

Qualifying for the Australian Open concludes on Friday, with the tournament proper set to begin on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian Open hopeful Francesca Jones broke down in emotional scenes, with the English player forced to retire hurt during qualifying for the tournament. The 23-year-old […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359287,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359284\/revisions\/359287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/359286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}