Italian Open: Rybakina through to semi-finals after Swiatek retires with leg injury

Elena Rybakina, the No 7 seed, advanced to the last four of the Italian Open for the first time in her career after Iga Swiatek, the world No 1 and top seed in Rome, retired from their highly-anticipated quarter-final encounter at the Foro Italico.

A gripping late-night encounter was cut short with the score perfectly poised at 2-6, 7-6 (3), 2-2 when Swiatek, the two-time defending champion, decided to forfeit the match. It appeared that the Pole was suffering from a right-leg injury, and was seen clutching her right knee towards the end of the second set.

Swiatek had looked in complete control for the first hour of the match, with Rybakina’s powerful serve struggling to make an impact on an unseasonably cold evening in the Italian capital.

The world No. 1 took the first set comfortably and quickly moved a break up in the second in what looked to be a straightforward victory for the Pole. But Rybakina found her groundstrokes as she became increasingly comfortable with the conditions.

The Kazakh broke back to force a tiebreak, which she won comfortably as Swiatek’s usually potent forehand started to show vulnerabilities.

The final set only lasted for four games, before Swiatek retied with an apparent injury to her right leg.

Due to the match’s late finish, neither Swiatek nor Rybakina have yet spoken to press about the match.

But the signs of an injury to the defending Roland-Garros champion just under two weeks before the start of the tournament will be of great concern for the 21-year-old and her team.

Rybakina, meanwhile, is into her first WTA 1000-level semi-final on clay and will play 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko next.

“It’s never good to finish a match like this,” Rybakina said on court afterwards.

“It was a really good match. I hope it’s nothing serious for Iga and I just wish her a speedy recovery.”

Earlier in the tournament, Elena Rybakina won against Italian Jasmine Paolini (7-6 (4), 6-1), Russian Anna Kalinskaya (4-3 ret.) and Czech Marketa Vondrousova (6-3, 6-3).

Swiatek had defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-0, 6-0), Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko (6-2, 6-0) and Croat Donna Vekic, the No 21 seed (6-3, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the tournament.

Swiatek’s retirement ends her 14-match winning streak at the Foro Italico and brings an end to her title defence.

Rome WTA 1000, other quarter-finals results (Foro Italico, clay, USD 3.572.618, most recent results first):

• Jelena Ostapenko beat Paula Badosa: 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
• Anhelina Kalinina (30) beat Beatriz Haddad Maia (12): 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-3
• Veronika Kudermetova (11) beat Qinwen Zheng (22): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4