Medina Garrigues out with back injury

STRASBOURG, France, May 20 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues withdrew Wednesday from the $220,000 Strasbourg International tennis tournament in France due to a back injury.

Medina Garrigues had won the event three of the last four years but dropped the first set 6-4 to Kristina Barrois and was then unable to continue the second-round match.

"It was a disappointing day today. I was playing a point and hurt my back and I had to retire from the match," Medina Garrigues wrote on her tournament blog site. "I've had this problem before -- twice last year. It's painful and makes your back very stiff."

She said, however, she should be ready to play in next week's French Open.

Also out of the tournament is fourth-seeded Gisela Dulko, who fell 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to France's Stephanie Cohen-Aloro. Another French player who advanced is Aravane Rezai, who stopped Anastasiya Yakimova, 6-4, 6-1.

No. 3-seeded Peng Shuai made it through to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win over Pauline Parmentier.

In other second-round matches, Monica Niculescu topped Yulia Beygelzimer, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4; Ayumi Morita beat Julie Coin, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4; Viktoriya Kutuzova defeated Stephanie Foretz, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Lucie Hradecka was a 7-5, 6-0 winner over Alla Kudryavtseva.