Tennis-Kvitova withdraws from French Open with arm injury

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May 27 (Reuters) - Petra Kvitova withdrew from the French Open on Monday due to an injury to her forearm, hours before her first match at the tournament against Romania's Sorana Cirstea.

"I'm so disappointed to have to announce my withdrawal from Roland Garros," the sixth seed said on Twitter.

"I've had pain in my left forearm for a few weeks and last night an MRI confirmed a grade two tear which could unfortunately could get a lot worse if I play today."

The Czech player has been replaced in the draw by lucky loser Kaja Juvan of Slovenia.

Kvitova, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2012, made a strong start to the clay court season by winning the title in Stuttgart and reaching the quarter-finals in Madrid.

A left calf injury in the third round at Rome affected her momentum heading into Roland Garros, the venue of her return to tennis in 2017 following a knife attack.

"Two years ago, I made my comeback here at Roland Garros, so I'm truly sad not to be able to play here this year. It's a really tough decision to make," she added.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings and Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru Editing by Peter Rutherford and David Holmes)

((simon.jennings@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8067497619; Reuters Messaging: simon.jennings.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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