Top seed and world number one Ashleigh Barty was forced to retire from the French Open at the second round stage due to an ongoing hip injury.
The Australian - who battled to a win in the first round against American Bernarda Pera despite the injury - was clearly in discomfort today playing against Poland's Magda Linette and she lost the first set 6-1 before taking a medical time out.
With the second set all tied at 2-2, Barty had to call it a day and had some warm words for Linette who is into the last-32 of a Grand Slam for just the second time in her career after doing so at the 2018 US Open.
The 25-year-old had admitted after her opening win on Tuesday that she was not able to give it one-hundred per cent on the court this week.
"It’s going to be a little bit tough this week," Barty said in the post match press conference. "I think over the weekend we had a bit of a flare-up through my left hip, which obviously just needed a bit of help today, needed some assistance to try and release it off as best I could.
Touchée au dos, la n°1 mondiale Ashleigh Barty a abandonné au deuxième tour. #RolandGarros
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 3, 2021
"That was a massive part of today was accepting the fact that, yes, I may not be absolutely 100% but I’m certainly good enough to go out there and fight and do the best I can and give myself a chance to win matches.
"Not going to hide behind the fact I’m not quite 100% but I can guarantee that I will go out there with the right attitude every day and be accepting of that and give it a crack no matter what. It’s going to be tough now without a doubt."
Following Barty's retirement and the withdrawal of Naomi Osaka from the tournament, third seed Aryna Sabalenka is now the highest-ranked player at Roland Garros.
The 23-year-old from Belarus faces Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round.
Elsewhere, 9th seed Karolina Pliskova also crashed out on Thursday.
The Czech was beaten in straight sets by the 2018 Roland-Garros finalist, Sloane Stephens.
5th seed Elina Svitolina continued her smooth progress through the field. She'll play Barbora Krejčíková after dispatching Ann Li 6-0, 6-4.
Sofia Kenin will face yet another American in round 3 after a straight sets win over Hailey Baptiste. Jessica Pegula is next up for the 4th seed.
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