The biggest casualty came early. Shortly after cutting short a morning practice session, Aryna Sabalenka, seeded third and twice a semi-finalist at the All England Club, withdrew from the tournament with a shoulder injury. The 26-year-old subsequently took to social media to say she was “heartbroken” to have to pull out of her scheduled first-round match against Emina Bektas of the United States.

“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not co-operating,” wrote Sabalenka. “I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse.”

Sabalenka, who also withdrew from her quarter-final match at last month’s Berlin Open with shoulder pain, spoke openly of her physical struggles before the tournament, yet that did little to mitigate the sense of shock surrounding her withdrawal. With the likes of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray all but clambering off the operating table and straight on to the practice courts in recent weeks, we have become inured to top players defying medical probability. But not every physical issue can be surmounted, and Sabalenka’s injury – to the teres major, a small but important muscle that runs under the shoulder joint and controls abduction and internal rotation – has caused her pain on her service, the bedrock of her game. Her frustration has been magnified by the fact that she can perform other movements without pain.

“The most annoying thing is that I can do anything, I can practise, I can hit my groundstrokes, but I’m struggling with serving, so that’s really annoying,” Sabalenka said at the weekend. 

“You don’t feel like you are injured, you know. If you give me some weights, I’m going to go and lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain.”

Sabalenka’s absence will be keenly felt, particularly with four of the world’s top six in the upper half of the draw. Coco Gauff, seeded second, was originally expected to face the two-time Australian Open championin the semi-finals. The American has never been beyond the fourth round, but made a winning start against Caroline Dolehide, dismissing her compatriot 6-2, 6-1 to erase the memory of last year’s first-round exit to Sofia Kenin. Gauff is not getting ahead of herself following Sabalenka’s withdrawal.

“I wouldn’t have probably played her till the semis,” said Gauff. “At that point, it’s just like, ‘This is the semi-finals of a grand slam.’ No matter who you play, it’s going to be a tough person to play. 

“But it is unfortunate that she had to pull out. She’s always a contender in every slam and [on] every surface. She’s such a competitor.”

Sabalenka was swiftly followed out of the tournament by another Belarusian nursing a shoulder injury. Victoria Azarenka, seeded 16th and also a two-time semi-finalist in SW19, had been scheduled to face Sloane Stephens in a battle of former major winners, but was likewise forced to withdraw. Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, despatched Azarenka’s replacement, French lucky loser Elsa Jacquemot, 6-3, 6-3.

That left Karolina Pliskova, a finalist in 2021, as the only remaining player in the bottom half of the draw with experience of the latter stages. However, the 32-year-old Czech was beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 by Diana Shnaider, the recently crowned Bad Homburg champion. If that deepened an already palpable sense of opportunity, the door was pushed further ajar when Lulu Sun, a 23-old-qualifier ranked 123 in the world, defeated Qinwen Zheng, the Chinese world No 8. The New Zealander defeated Zheng, who was seeded to meet Sabalenka in the quarter-finals in a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Among those hoping to capitalise on Zheng’s loss will be Emma Raducanu, the former US Open champion, who was beneficiary of yet another late withdrawal. Originally expected to face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, Raducanu instead found herself up against Mexico’s Renata Zarzua, a lucky loser ranked 98 in the world. The British wild card, ranked 135, prevailed 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 and will next face Elise Mertens of Belgium, the world’s best doubles player, who came from behind to see off Japan’s Nao Hibino 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Should Raducanu advance to the third round, she could meet Maria Sakkari, the Greek ninth seed, who navigated the opening round of a major for only the second time in six attempts with a 6-3, 6-1 win over McCartney Kessler of the United States. 

The post Sabalenka withdrawal blows Wimbledon draw wide open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Ten weeks ago at the Australian Open, Rybakina came out on the wrong side of the longest tiebreak in grand slam singles history, losing a 42-point shootout to Anna Blinkova. Pushed to a final-set shootout for the first time since, it would have been natural for her mind to drift back to that gut-wrenching defeat. 

But as the 24-year-old vied with Victoria Azarenka for a place in the Miami Open final, nothing could have been further from her mind. She was not thinking of Australia, or Blinkova, or the six match points she missed on that January night in Melbourne. She was not dwelling on a remarkably one-sided second set in which Azarenka turned a match she had been controlling on its head with a run of 16 straight points. Nor was she preoccupied by the thought that, less than 10 minutes earlier, she had stood just two points from victory as she served for the match at 5-4. All that mattered now was a clear mind.

“I knew that in the tiebreak the only chance for me to win was just to switch off my mind and just try to go for it,” said Rybakina following her dramatic 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (7-2) victory. 

“I didn’t even remember that last time I played in Australia, the tiebreak. But definitely, all the matches I played here, it was a battle for every point with all the opponents. 

“I was not really thinking much. I knew it’s a tiebreak, it’s a kind of roulette, it might not go your way, especially from the beginning – and it went my way.”

Through to the final for a second straight year, Rybakina will face a player cast in the same powerful mould in Danielle Collins, who maintained her dominant form at the tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 14th seed. 

“I’m looking forward to playing Elena,” said Collins after reaching the first WTA 1000 final of her career in her last season as a professional. “We have had a lot of great matches previously, some battles. That’s what we play for as professional athletes, these close ones. 

“Every time I have played her, it’s neck and neck. These games are close, the points are close, they are long, challenging points. Big serves from both of us. Big returns, big groundstrokes. I think we will go out there and put on a great show and it will be a fun match.”

Rybakina could be forgiven for hoping that their latest meeting bucks that trend. The Kazakhstani has won her past three matches against the unseeded American – her sole defeat came during Collins’s title run in San Jose in 2021 – but all have gone the distance. After being pushed to a decider in four of her five matches in Miami, another three-setter is the last thing the world No 4 needs.

“It was really difficult from the beginning,” said Rybakina, who arrived in Florida short of match practice after a gastrointestinal illness forced her to abandon her defence of the Indian Wells title. “For sure I can take a lot from this tournament, a lot of positives. And also, in the beginning, these long matches were helping me to get back in shape. 

“Now I’m not in shape, just because I’m tired of all these long matches. But overall, it was a really successful tournament no matter how I do in the final.”

The post Rybakina edges past Azarenka to set up Collins final in Miami appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

An outstanding performance from Ekaterina Alexandrova put paid to Swiatek’s hopes of winning the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami for the second time in three years, the 29-year-old Russian prevailing 6-4, 6-2 to claim the most significant victory of her career.

Alexandrova, who had never previously beaten a reigning world No 1, becomes only the third player to defeat Swiatek this season, and the third ever to survive a match against the Pole at this category of event without dropping serve. It was Swiatek’s first loss to a top-20 player since last September, when Veronika Kudermetova thwarted her in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open.

“She played an amazing match and for sure she was a better player out there today,” said Swiatek after suffering her first defeat before the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event since the 2022 Cincinnati Open. “I had a hard time reading [her serve], and I got a little bit tense also when I couldn’t return well. 

“At the end, I think all that really made my game worse. I was feeling like I can’t play in a natural way, but it’s not like I always feel comfortable on court, so I thought I was going to be able to work through that.”

Alexandrova’s excellence ensured otherwise. The tone was set from the opening game, when the Russian fired a blazing forehand winner to secure what would prove a vital break. In the sixth game, Alexandrova fended off the only break point she would face on the evening, gobbling up a short ball behind a meaty first serve, and there was a perceptible swagger in her step as she served out the opener to love. 

By this stage, Swiatek’s unforced errors were outnumbering her winners by a ratio of two to one, yet worse was to come for the Pole. As her forehand became increasingly wayward in the face of Alexandrova’s aggressive baseline onslaught, Swiatek suffered the rare indignity of losing five straight games from 1-0 up in the second set. Her difficulties were compounded by the excellence of Alexandrova’s return game, the Russian alternating between stepping inside the baseline to crush huge returns off Swiatek’s first serve, and retreating to deal equally severely with the higher-bouncing topspin of her second delivery.

It was a winning formula, one that will not have gone unnoticed in the locker room, although with 27 unforced errors to just 11 winners – a department in which Alexandrova dwarfed her, battering 31 winners including eight aces – Swiatek undoubtedly contributed to her downfall. Struggling with the transition following her title win in Indian Wells, where the courts are slower and the balls lighter, she simply failed to find her best form in Miami. After demolishing Camila Giorgi on Saturday, Swiatek declared herself happy with the conditions, but that changed after she became embroiled in a taut three-setter with Linda Noskova the following day. 

“I kind of changed my mind,” she said after defeating her Australian Open conqueror for a second straight tournament. “Now I know that I still have some things to figure out.”

The same could be said for Coco Gauff, the third seed, whose ambitions of winning her hometown tournament were undone by Caroline Garcia, the 23rd seed. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman prevailed 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, her third successive victory in five matches against Gauff, who was unable to contain her opponent’s free-flowing aggression despite a strong second-set fightback.

From a familiarity with the local climate and surroundings to the backing of the home crowd, all the advantages seemed to be in the US Open champion’s favour. That feeling increased when Garcia, who defeated Naomi Osaka in straight sets in the previous round, required treatment on a shoulder problem that took the sting out of her first serve. But the former world No 4’s first-strike style proved too hot to handle for Gauff, whose challenge faded quickly once she failed to seize opportunities to break at the start of the decider.

“It’s definitely a great match and great win for me,” said Garcia, who will face Danielle Collins, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Sorana Cirstea, for a place in the last four. 

“I try to always be very aggressive and take some time away. Looks like Coco doesn’t really like it.”

Alexandrova, through to the quarter-finals for the second year in a row, will play Jessica Pegula after the fifth-seeded American defeated Emma Navarro 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. The Russian is under no illusions about what she will need to do if she is to avenge her straight-sets defeat to Pegula in the only previous meeting between the pair, which came just under three years ago in Rome. 

“Probably the same thing I did today [against Swiatek]: so stay consistent, stay focused and just focus on my game, not on the opponent,” Alexandrova said. “[I’ll] just do my best and we’ll see.”

The post Swiatek and Gauff fall on a day of upsets at Miami Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Two years ago, the Miami Open’s grandstand court was the scene of heartbreak for Andreescu, who was forced to retire in the final against Ashleigh Barty after turning an ankle. It was a major blow for the Canadian, who had barely returned from a 15-month absence caused by a torn meniscus in her left knee, an injury she suffered shortly after winning the US Open in 2019.

History repeated itself in distressing fashion at Miami Gardens on Monday night as Andreescu, a set down to Ekaterina Alexandrova but a break up early in the second, abruptly abandoned her pursuit of a wide forehand, crumpling to the court in agony as she clutched her left ankle. 

“Oh my God!” cried a tearful Andreescu, screaming and rolling in agony on the baseline as Julie Kjendlie, the Norwegian chair umpire, swiftly made her way over. 

“I’ve never felt this kind of pain before,” added Andreescu, still writhing in pain, when medical staff arrived on the scene a few moments later.

After several minutes, Andreescu was helped to her feet, embracing Alexandrova and exchanging a few words before leaving the court in a wheelchair. As she left, she cast a glance back towards her distraught family in the stands. The look in her eyes spoke of pain, sadness and utter disbelief. No wonder. Not only had she fallen in almost exactly the same spot as her mishap of two years earlier, injury had once again struck at the most inopportune of moments. 

Having seen off a pair of fellow former grand slam champions in Emma Raducanu and Sofia Kenin either side of a notable win over Maria Sakkari, the seventh seed, the effervescent 22-year-old had emerged as one of the tournament’s star attractions. Clearly revelling in her recent return to form – she made the semi-finals of the Thailand Open last month before a shoulder injury forced her to retire against Lesia Tsurenko – Andreescu had spoken this week of regaining her confidence, of feeling good, of regaining her sense of fearlessness. Now she must once again tread the weary path from renaissance to rehab. It was, as Alexandrova acknowledged, too cruel.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to say, just really sorry that it’s happened to her because seeing her on the court in so much pain is just painful to watch,” said the Russian world No 18, who will now meet Petra Kvitova, a 7-5, 7-6 winner over Varvara Gracheva, after advancing 7-6 (7-0), 0-2. 

“You cannot help, you just can do nothing, which is terrible.

“I think she’s going to be fine soon, I’m wishing her a speedy recovery. The first set was super tough and great, it probably could have been a pretty good match for both of us, but unfortunately [the injury] happened.”

Alexandrova was helped on her way by a rain delay of almost two hours, an interval that gave her the opportunity to rethink her tactics after she was forced to recover from an early break. The Russian was joined in the quarter-finals by Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, who made light of the weather delay as she saw off Barbora Krejcikova, the gifted Czech who ended her unbeaten start to the season in Dubai last month.

“I think the key today was my serve, I just put so much pressure on her and then it was kind of easier for me to play on her serve, I could play free, I could go for lines, I could hit the ball a little bit harder,” said Sabalenka, who also defeated Krejcikova in Indian Wells a fortnight ago.

The Belarusian will face Sorana Cirstea, a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 winner over Marketa Vondrousova, in the last eight. The 32-year-old Romanian, also a quarter-finalist in Indian Wells last week, has never previously faced Sabalenka.

“I know it’s going to be very tough,” said Cirstea, currently ranked 74th. “But I’ve been winning a lot of matches this American swing and I have the confidence.”

Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion and No 10 seed, claimed her first straight-sets victory of the tournament against Elise Mertens, seeing off the Belgian 6-4, 6-3 to book an appointment with Italy’s Martina Trevisan, who beat Jelena Ostapenko, the former French Open champion, 6-3, 6-3.

“I didn’t start the greatest, but [I’m] happy that it was in two sets,” said Rybakina, who saved a match point against Paula Badosa in the previous round after being taken the distance by Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya in her opening match. 

“For sure, physically I’m not the freshest,” added Rybakina, who arrived in Florida hot on the heels of her title run in Indian Wells. “But I’m happy that I’m managing and finding my way.”

Jessica Pegula, the third seed, will play Anastasia Potapova for the second time in a fortnight after coming through 6-1, 7-5 against her good friend and sometime practice partner Magda Linette. The Pole, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, rallied impressively following a poor start but was unable to convert a set point at 5-4 in the second set.

The post Andreescu exits Miami Open after horror ankle injury appeared first on Love Game Tennis.