Wozniacki comes clean over baby kangaroo tale

(AP)

Caroline Wozniacki's press conferences are rapidly becoming as entertaining as her matches. Forty-eight hours after she answered questions ranging from global warming to Kenny Dalglish's return at Liverpool, the world No 1 told reporters here at the Australian Open that she had suffered a cut on her leg when she was attacked by a baby kangaroo in a wildlife park.

It was an entertaining story that was soon being relayed around the world, but within an hour Wozniacki admitted on Twitter that she had made it up. Later in the day she returned to the press conference room to apologise for any embarrassment she had caused.

The 20-year-old Dane, who had suggested last week that if her press conferences were boring it was because journalists asked the same boring questions, told her tale after beating Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-4 to earn a place in the quarter-finals for the first time. Pointing to some tape covering a wound on her leg, she said she had been scratched after she tried to help the kangaroo, which had been lying on the grass, apparently in distress.

"I thought maybe it needed some help," Wozniacki said. "I found out that I shouldn't do that." She added: "It looked so cute, but once it started scratching me I was a coward and I ran away." Wozniacki said she went to hospital to have the wound examined but decided not to have it stitched.

Within an hour she said on Twitter: "Round 2 with the media: hope you enjoyed my kangaroo story, hope you know I was just kidding. See you on Tuesday for round 3!"

By that time, however, several journalists had already sent their stories, prompting Wozniacki to return later in the day to apologise. She said she had actually hurt her leg walking into a treadmill.

"I made up the kangaroo story because it sounded better than what actually happened," Wozniacki said, adding that she had not imagined that anyone would believe the story and had already told the Danish press that it was a joke. "I'm hoping that the press conferences in the future will still be funny. I promise if I make a joke like this, I'll make sure to clarify it before I leave."