British number one Emma Raducanu was forced to retire from her Italian Open first-round match with Bianca Andreescu with a back injury.
The 2021 US Open winner and world number 12 was trailing 6-2 2-1 at the time of her withdrawal against the Canadian, another former US Open winner, in 2019, who has battled her own injury troubles through her career.
Raducanu was clutching her back when she took a medical timeout after going 5-2 down but returned to the court minutes later where the Canadian held to love to take the opening set.
Raducanu held serve at the start of the second set but looked uncomfortable yet again and this time she took the decision to retire when she was down 2-1 in the second, telling a physio: "I can't move."
The 19-year-old has had mixed results after winning her maiden Grand Slam title at last year's US Open but has had an encouraging run in the clay court season where she reached the quarter-finals in Stuttgart and last 16 in Madrid - the latter tournament also seeing her struggle with a back issue.
Raducanu, who is currently without a full-time coach following her split from Torben Beltz last month, will be hoping to return to full fitness by the time the French Open gets under way at Roland Garros in less than a fortnight's time.
Comments
Post a Comment