Soderling to miss the Australian Open

The 13^th ranked tennis player in the world Robin Soderling has become the first casualty of the Australian Open, where he will not be able to compete due to illness. The Swedish tennis player, who has reached the finals of the French Open on two occasions, losing both times, one to Roger Federer and again to Rafael Nadal has said that he has decided to withdraw from the first Grand Slam of the year as he wants to fully recover from the illness and does not want to put the entire season in jeopardy by competing while not fully fit.

The Swede has not played a professional tennis match since July last year when he appeared in Bastad, a tournament that he won as he has been suffering from mononucleosis, a kind of viral infection. Soderling posted in his Twitter account that his recovery is taking more than he and his physicians expected and although he is feeling better with each passing day, it would still take him a few days to regain full fitness and start training.

Robin Soderling also said that he wanted to start practice fully fledged in January and wants to make a return to the professional circuit in February but also added that he is not sure when and where that comeback would happen. He further added that he was hopeful that his body would enable him to make his desired comeback in February.

The Swedish star, who was ranked fourth in the world reached the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open, the first time that he crossed the barrier of the second round and he stated that mentally he was ready to do better. But unfortunately for Robin Soderling, he will have to wait another before he can do what he wants to do.