Barty, Swiatek pull out of Australian Open warm-up tournament

SYDNEY - World number one Ashleigh Barty on Monday pulled out of this week's Sydney Classic after opening her season by winning
the singles and doubles titles at the Adelaide International.

  The 25-year-old's name was scratched from a revised draw with local reports
saying she needed to recover from her Adelaide exploits, with the Australian
Open starting in one week.

  Barty demolished Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-2 to claim the 14th
singles title of her career on Sunday then returned to win the doubles with
Storm Sanders.

  It was Barty's first tournament in four months, since a shock third-round
loss at the US Open in September, after which she opted to remain in
Australia because of the pandemic.

  But the reigning Wimbledon champion bounced back to show why she is
favourite to win her maiden Australian Open crown.

  Barty beat a host of top players in a stacked top half of the Adelaide
draw, including Coco Gauff (world number 19), Sofia Kenin (12) and Iga
Swiatek (8) on her way to the decider.

  Her first-round bye in Sydney has been handed to third seed and world
number four Barbora Krejcikova, with world number three Garbine Muguruza now
the top seed.

  Former French Open champion Swiatek, who fell to Barty in the Adelaide
semis, also withdrew from Sydney.

  "After a tense pre-season and last week's tournament in Adelaide I feel
like my body needs more time to recover before @australianopen," the Pole
said on Twitter.

  "I've been feeling some pain in my lower rib area, which is why
unfortunately I've decided to withdraw from the tournament in Sydney. See you
in Melbourne!"

  Swiatek was due to open her Sydney campaign against US Open champion Emma
Raducanu, who missed the Melbourne Summer Set tournament last week as she
continued to recover from coronavirus.

  The Briton will instead play Rybakina.

  In early Sydney action, Spain's world number nine Paula Badosa swept past Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 (7/1), 6-1 and fifth-ranked Estonian Anett Kontaveit beat China's Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-3.