Exhausted Molik forced to miss Paris
A DOSE of the flu has forced Alicia Molik to call a brief halt to her barnstorming start to 2005.
The world No.10 was due to depart for the Paris Indoors last Friday but pulled out of the event, which started last night, and delayed her departure for Europe until today.
Molik had spoken of being exhausted after the Australian Open, where she reached the quarter-finals of the singles and won her first Grand Slam title (with Svetlana Kuznetsova) in the doubles.
Her manager, Peter Smylie, said yesterday it was almost inevitable that Molik, 24, would feel the effects of a strenuous early-season schedule but that there were no long-term concerns.
"It is just the flu and she is feeling a bit rundown," Smylie said yesterday.
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"She is disappointed to miss Paris but there is no way she could have played: she's just not well enough.
"It is understandable, she has been going flat out for the last month ... she tries to do everything she can."
Molik played 13 singles matches in January in a run that helped her rise to No.10 in the world, plus seven doubles matches.
Last week she said that the success did take a "toll".
"I'm feeling pretty exhausted," Molik said on Sydney radio.
Smylie said Molik would only skip the Paris event and would play in the subsequent tournaments in Antwerp and Doha, as originally planned.
She flies to Switzerland today to join coach David Taylor for a few days of practice.
Smylie said the illness was an untimely one.
"She was keen to keep going because she was in such good form," Smylie said.
