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Summary The Australian Open's walking wounded are hopeful of making it through the year's first grand slam.
The Australian Opens walking wounded are hopeful of making it through the years first grand slam that starts Monday after a raft of high-profile early season injuries.Roger Federer said he was back to full training after back spasms forced him out of the Qatar Open, while five-time womens champion Serena Williams had her fingers crossed after spraining her ankle this month in Brisbane.Williams said she had undergone constant icing and would play with her ankles strapped -- although she had eschewed treatment in an oxygen chamber because she gets claustrophobic.Well, I really tested my moving today for the first time so I feel a lot better with it. Ill kind of know more tonight, you know, because today is the first day I really like really, really, really pushed it, Williams said.Defending womens champion Kim Clijsters was confident she would suffer no more ill-effects after she had to pull out of the Brisbane tournament with hip spasms.Im doing good. I think what happened in Brisbane was something that I knew was something that would only need a few days to get better, and it did, said the Belgian.I had my scan just to make sure the day after, but that showed no problems. So I was relieved. Yeah, came to Melbourne and started hitting when I got here.Womens number one Caroline Wozniacki was also optimistic about her left wrist after feeling sharp pain during last weeks loss to Agnieszka Radwanska at the Sydney International.Obviously its a bit scary when youre out there. You dont know. But, I mean, everything turned out to be okay with the wrist, she said.You know, I had some pain, but its going away. Im confident that on Monday it will be 100 percent ready.And mens champion Novak Djokovic said he was clear of the shoulder and back problems which overshadowed the end of his superb 2011.For right now I dont feel any struggles and any pain, Djokovic said.Womens number 10 Andrea Petkovic has already pulled out of the Open with a stress fracture in her lower back, while Venus Williams is out with autoimmune disease Sjogrens syndrome.Mens second seed Rafael Nadal has complained of shoulder problems and also mental fatigue at the start of the year, and says he intends to take a month off after the seasons first grand slam.Federer, ranked third, said he needed to do exercises during his long flight from Doha to make sure the back problem did not flare up again and rule him out of his 49th consecutive grand slam.I tried to sleep as much as I could, then sort of got up and did some exercise. Actually, made it all the way through the flight, Federer said.Believe it or not, my back started to feel a little bit better, which was a bit of a relief.
