Injured Elena Rybakina retires mid-match at Cincinnati Open

Elena Rybakina retired 1-4 down in her quarterfinal match against Iga Swiatek at the Cincinnati Open.

Tennis Channel’s Lindsay Davenport reported that Rybakina had strapping around her Achilles area.

She retired during a service game where it appeared she could not jump off or get power on the serve.

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Rybakina walked off the court on her own

Fans worry that she suffered a Holger Rune-like Achilles injury. If she was wearing strapping in that area, she must have had a previous issue.

Hopefully, it was a precautionary retirement to avoid further jeopardizing her health, rather than a serious injury.

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World No. 1 is within Rybakina’s reach

Her injury is especially sad and ironic given the fact that she has a realistic chance of overtaking Aryna Sabalenka, who lost to Sara Bejlek in the Cincinnati Open quarterfinals in the race for the WTA World No. 1 ranking.

She is approximately 400 points behind Sabalenka in the WTA live rankings with 2000 points at stake at the upcoming US Open. Rybakina also committed to play US Open mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz beginning next week.

Swiatek has been enjoying a resurgence but definitely did not want to earn the win in this way. She will face Jessica Pegula, who defeated Amanda Anisimova earlier in the day, in Friday’s semifinal. The other semifinalist spots will be filled on Friday as Sara Bejlek takes on Madison Keys and Coco Gauff faces Marta Kostyuk.

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