CANAS OUT OF OZ

A wrist injury has taken Guillermo Canas out of the Australian Open removing one of Roger Federer's potential toughest obstacles in his defense of the Oz Open title.

Cañas, who scored successive victories over the Swiss stylist at Indian Wells and Miami in March, has officially withdrawn from next month's Australian Open due to tendonitis in his left wrist.

The 15th-ranked Argentine is expected to be sidelined until next April. A premature return could leave Cañas vulnerable to aggravating the injury and possibly prompt surgery. A French doctor who examined Cañas' ailing wrist advised against surgery and recommended rest.

Cañas was one of only four men to beat Federer in 2007. Federer gained a measure of revenge in October crushing Cañas, 6-0, 6-3, to cruise into the Madrid Masters quarterfinals in 53 minutes.

The injury stalls an inspired return to the pro circuit for Cañas. Left wrist surgery sidelined him for several months in 2000, followed by the surgery to remove a cyst and repair a stress fracture on his right wrist on Aug. 9, 2002, which preceded another procedure on his wrist on March 14, 2003 that sidelined him for nearly eight months.

Cañas was hit with the two-year suspension from professional tennis, fined $276,070 in prize money and forced to forfeit 525 singles and 95 doubles ranking points after testing positive for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide at the Acapulco event in February 2005. Cañas served a suspension from June 2005 to September 2006 before returning to tournament tennis late last year.