Dinara Safina, the winner of last week’s Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, has pulled out of this week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
The official reason for her withdrawal is a back injury, according to tournament officials.
Safina played the best week of her career last week in Berlin, scoring three Top 10 victories over Justine Henin, Serena Williams, and Elena Dementieva on the way to her first Tier I title.
Sybille Bammer has been moved into Safina’s seeded position in the main draw as the nineteenth seed. Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova has also entered the draw as a lucky loser.
