KATHARINE BAKER suffered further heartache in her quest to lift her first major title when injury struck to halt her progress in the under 15 nationals in Bournemouth last week.
The Parmiters School pupil, seeded two, had looked in fine form as she breezed through to the quarter-finals with straight sets victories in the first two rounds.
In the last eight, the 15-year-old convincingly won the first set 6-2, and was 4-2 up and serving in the second when she suffered a recurrence of the thigh injury she sustained in the European Junior Championships last month.
Katharine, ranked 361 in the ITF junior rankings, subsequently lost the next three games, but recovered to force a tie-break, which she decisively lost 7-5.
The injury was now serious, hampering Baker's play, and as a result she lost the third set 6-1, and the match.
Just to compound Baker's woes, her opponent went on to win the tournament, leaving her with a race against time to be fit for the under 18 nationals.
However, the injury has forced her to pull out.
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