Chennai: All play at the Chennai Open was cancelled Wednesday because of persistent rain.

Top-seed Nikolay Davydenko was the only player to lose after pulling out of his match against Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic because of pain in his left heel. The fifth-ranked Davydenko said he would also miss the Australian Open.

Organisers are hoping to play all the postponed matches on Thursday.

Davydenko’s exit sends Czech Republic’s Lukas Dlouhy, with whom he was scheduled to play his second round match Wednesday, through to the quarter finals.

“It is my left heel. It started last year, but did not bother me much. Since there was not much pain I carried on. I was having the same problem in Shanghai but I played,” Davydenko said.

“But now I feel real pain and I cannot do anything. I cannot run and I cannot play tennis. That is why I decided to check my heel with the tournament doctor here. I will go back home and check what is happening,” he said.

“I have no chance of playing in the Australian Open. Therefore, I have decided to pull out of the year’s first Grand Slam,” he said at a news conference.

Davydenko said it was wiser to skip the Australian Open altogether than to leave it mid-way.

“I will try now and may be I can recover faster, I can play tournaments after the Australian Open. Maybe, I will start my tournaments from Rotterdam and Dubai and be fit physically,” he said.

Davydenko revealed that he was in pain even during his match against world No.1 Rafael Nadal last week in Abu Dhabi. (PTI)