Iga Swiatek’s struggles continued with a tearful withdrawal during her third-round match against Ann Li at the Madrid Open.
The former world number one, who is yet to advance beyond the quarter-finals at any event this season, revealed afterwards she is battling a virus and she had her temperature and blood pressure checked after losing the opening two games of the deciding set.
After taking pills, Swiatek initially continued, but she looked lethargic and pulled the plug trailing American Li 6-7 (4) 6-2 0-3 0-30 before walking off the court in tears.
“The last two days were pretty terrible,” said the Pole. “I think I have some virus.
“It’s been some hours fine, some hours pretty bad. I heard there is something going on between players, that the virus is somewhere on site. I’m sure I’ll be fine in a couple of days, but I had zero energy.
“I just felt really bad physically, and yesterday, even worse. I thought maybe today it’s going to be better – maybe it was, but not enough to play a match.”
Swiatek looked to have turned the contest around after losing a tight opening set but it was no surprise when she called it a day given her demeanour in the third set.
Asked if she considered not taking to the court at all, the fourth seed said: “I knew that it was going to be hard but I still wanted to try.
“In the third set I started feeling a little bit dizzy and not really coordinated. I couldn’t really drink anything because I just felt like I’m full constantly, and the energy went down drastically.”
Swiatek will now focus on recovering before turning her thoughts to the Italian Open in Rome next month, where she will hope to find form under new coach Francisco Roig ahead of Roland Garros.
“It’s sad for me that I can’t play because I was feeling really good with my game, and I was moving forward in the process,” she said.
“The tournament has just started. I couldn’t even compete today, so it’s disappointing.”
It has also been a difficult season for two-time grand slam finalist Jasmine Paolini and she crashed out in the third round, losing 7-5 6-3 to American Hailey Baptiste.
In the men’s singles, second seed Alexander Zverev dropped a set against Argentina’s Mariano Navone but recovered to claim a 6-1 3-6 6-3 victory.
The German potentially stands to benefit the most from the news Carlos Alcaraz will not play at the French Open because of a wrist injury, with Zverev set to be elevated to second seed in Paris.
But the 28-year-old, who lost an epic semi-final to Alcaraz at the Australian Open in January, insisted he takes no pleasure in the Spaniard’s absence, saying: “It’s sad for tennis.
“As he said himself, he’s so young and his career will be so, so long and I think that’s what he’s looking out for. Of course, it’s never nice if he’s missing at big tournaments, I think we need him, tennis is more exciting with him, for sure.
“In my opinion, to win a major, you have to beat the best players in the world. Of course, the last couple of months Jannik (Sinner) has been the best player and he’s obviously still there and he’s the heavy favourite now.
“I don’t want them to not be there. I’m still going to compete my hardest and I’m still going to try to win the tournament, but having them there is the better thing.”
Defending champion Casper Ruud raced to a 6-0 6-1 win over Spain’s Jaume Munar while third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime is also through to the third round.
