Wimbledon champion forced to suddenly withdraw from French Open moments before match over health fears | The Sun

WIMBLEDON CHAMPION Elena Rybakina withdrew suddenly from the French Open after an illness left her struggling for breath.

Moments before she was due to appear on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Kazakhstan’s No1 tennis player pulled out of her third-round clash with Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.

The No4 seed – who recently won the Italian Open in Rome – had been among the favourites for the women’s singles title in Paris.

Rybakina, 23, who broke the heart of Ons Jabeur in the 2022 Wimbledon finale, said: “I wasn’t feeling good already on Thursday or Friday. I didn’t sleep two nights and had some fever.

“I really tried on the warm-up but I feel that the right decision is to withdraw, because it’s really tough to play with these conditions.

“I’m really upset not be able to play but I guess that’s life. There are a lot of ups and downs. I just wanted to give 100 per cent and obviously I’m far from being 100 per cent.

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“It’s unlucky for me. I’ll try to recover and do my best to be prepared for the grass season already.

“I saw the doctor and they said that actually it’s all a virus here in Paris. I guess with my allergies, my immune system just went down and I picked up something.

“I had a fever, headache. It’s difficult to perform and obviously to run and even breathe. So I think that was the only right decision I could make.”

Iga Swiatek, the defending champion and world No1, enjoyed a golden bagel – 6-0 6-0 – as she whitewashed Xinyu Wang from China in 51 minutes.

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