Argentina tennis star Juan Martin del Potro has been ruled out of the first major of the season, Australian Open, due to fitness concerns.
The 28-year-old was also forced to withdrew from his warm up event in New Zealand, the organisers of the Auckland Classic confirmed.
"Del Potro confirmed via his management team overnight that he has not had sufficient recovery time and will be withdrawing from the (Auckland) Classic and the Australian Open," Sport24 quoted the Classic organisers as saying.
The decision came a month after del Potro staged a strong comeback to beat World No. 6 Marin Cilic of Croatia in a five-set clash to guide the Argentina to their first-ever Davis Cup crown.
After enduring an injury-plagued last year, del Potro began 2016 ranked 1,042th and finished at 38th after a meteoric rise in his performance which saw victories over world number one Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
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