Potapova out until December following ankle surgery

Rising teenager Anastasia Potapova has announced that she will be sidelined for the next four months due to undergoing ankle surgery in July.

The 19-year-old two-time WTA finalist wrote: "Since fall 2019 I have been bothered with the consequences of my ankle injury I sustained during the tournament in Korea."

World No.85 Potapova, who went over on her ankle in the second set of her 7-5, 7-6(4) second-round loss to Magda Linette in Seoul last September, continued: "After additional researches in the spring-summer of 2020 and consultations with specialists and taking into account the current situation in the world also, my team and I made a decision to make a surgery. In July I had a successful arthroscopy of my right ankle in Moscow. Currently I have elective recovering procedures and prepare to return to the courts... I plan to resume playing in December 2020."

A Wimbledon junior champion in 2016, when she defeated Dayana Yastremska in the final, Potapova was runner-up in both Moscow and Tashkent in her breakthrough year of 2018. Last year, the Russian captured her first Top 10 win in style, stunning Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of Roland Garros, hitting a career high of World No.64 last July as a result.