The Polish tennis player was forced to leave the quarterfinal match she was playing against Rybakina
The world number 1 and the Kazakh were 2-6, 7-6 (3) and 2-2 when Swiatek’s right knee said enough
the polish Iga Swiatek, number one on the circuit and favorite to win the tournament, had to retire in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1,000 in Rome against Kazakh Elena Rybakina due to an injury to her right knee. With the score tied at one in sets and two games in the third match (2-6, 7-6 (3) and 2-2), the Pole, who was defending the crown in Rome, decided to stop for the discomfort suffered in the right knee after a race in a previous play that set off the alarms on the center court of the Foro Itálico.
The injury tipped the balance of the even match, which stopped the clock at two hours and twenty minutes, in favor of the Kazakh, number 6 in the ranking, who managed to recover from the 6-2 loss she received in the first set and come back from the second set , in which they lost 1-3, in a ‘tie-break’ (7-3) that lengthened the game. Rybakina will face the Latvian in the semifinals Jelena Ostapenkowho eliminated the Spanish Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals.
Earlier, in the first set, the match left a curious image, since it had to be interrupted by a mobile phone that began to ring loudly throughout the court and which in the end turned out to be Swiatek’s own.