Dinara Safina Pulls Out of Wimbledon With Lower Back Injury

#20 seed Dinara Safina has withdrawn from Wimbledon with a lower back injury, the same ailment that cut short her Australian Open and that kept her out of action in February, March, and most of April.

Safina has been playing incredibly poorly for almost a year now, compiling a 5-6 record  including a first round loss at the French Open to thirty-nine year-old Kimiko Date Krumm that included 17 double faults off the Safina racquet.

Safina parted with her coach, Zeljko Krajan, just before the French Open.  The two shared a bizarre relationship that often included the Russian Safina shouting at him in an angry mix of English and Croatian.

Safina's ranking has already fallen from #2 to #21 this year, and it will continue to drop because of this withdrawal.  Safina rather flukily made the semifinals last year, eventually being crushed 6-1, 6-0 in that round by Venus Williams.  The loss of those 900 semifinalist points she will not defend will likely drop her ranking to somewhere in the #28-32 range.  If she is unable to defend her title from last July in Portoroz as well, her ranking will drop even further

Safina's position in the draw will now be occupied by Melanie Oudin, who becomes seeded for the first time at a grand slam as the new #33 seed.  She'll face Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the first round.  Definitely an easier match than her previously slated duel against Kirsten Flipkens.  Canadian Stephanie Dubois is the lucky loser who will take Oudin's slot.