World No. 1 Serena Williams withdrew from the Wuhan Open yesterday after falling ill midway through the first set of her second-round match against Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.
The American top seed was leading 6-5 after breaking Cornet’s serve with a smash, only for the doctor to come on court at the changeover and take the 32-year-old’s temperature.
Williams, who was playing in her first match since winning her 18th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open earlier this month, sat solemnly, head down with a towel around her neck and a thermometer in her mouth, before opting against continuing.
Photo: AFP
Williams had showed flashes of her usual brilliance, but she did not look at full fitness throughout her hour of activity on Center Court.
Her exit only added to the headache for organizers of the inaugural US$2.4 million WTA Tour hard-court event, where top names tumbled in early action after the city’s tennis trailblazer, Li Na, announced her retirement from the game last week.
Former world No. 1 and 10th seed Jelena Jankovic was also forced to quit her second-round match in the first set while trailing CoCo Vandeweghe of the US 4-1.
That followed the departure of Romanian world No. 2 Simona Halep, who was beaten by an aggressive display from Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
The Spanish 20-year-old smashed 34 winners as she knocked out the second seed 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and set up a third-round meeting with Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who battled back from a 5-0 deficit in the first set to edge Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Italian 11th seed Sara Errani was ousted by Alison Riske of the US 6-4, 6-4, while Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky defeated 13th seed and US Open semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 6-1.
Danish eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to Williams in the Flushing Meadows final in New York, narrowly avoided joining the exodus after battling back from a break down in the third set to edge Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4).
In the late matches yesterday evening, sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada defeated Mona Barthel of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, seventh-seeded German Angelique Kerber defeated Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 and third seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic defeated Italian qualifier Karin Knapp 6-3, 6-0.
On Monday, fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, ninth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 14th seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and 15th seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy all made exits to leave the tournament wide open.
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