Jarkko Nieminen's campaign at this year's Australian Open lasted only one and a half sets, before he was obliged to retire and forfeit the match to 28th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.
Mathieu took the first set 6-2 and was leading 4-1 in the second set at the time of Nieminen's retirement.
Nieminen's leg and thigh were given treatment during the first set, and after the truncated match the Finnish player's first thought was that he had suffered a sprain of some kind, but only further investigations will reveal the damage.
The outcome is an enormous disappointment for Nieminen, who went into the first Grand Slam event of the year on the back of a good performance in Sydney, where he made the final after knocking out world No.3 Novak Djokovic.
It will also be a costly retirement: Nieminen progressed to the last eight at the Australian Open last year, and will therefore be losing a good many valuable ATP points when the tournament ends.
