Iga Swiatek’s difficult season continued as she tearfully retired from her third-round match at the Madrid Open against Ann Li, citing a virus. The former world number one, who has not advanced beyond the quarter-finals at any event this year, lost the opening set in a tie-break before levelling the match. However, after losing the first two games of the deciding set, she had her temperature and blood pressure checked and eventually pulled the plug trailing 0-3, 0-30.
“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.” Swiatek added that she felt dizzy and uncoordinated in the third set, and could not drink anything as she felt constantly full.
Swiatek will now focus on recovering ahead of the Italian Open in Rome next month, where she will hope to find form under new coach Francisco Roig before 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.”
In other matches, two-time grand slam finalist Jasmine Paolini lost 7-5 6-3 to American Hailey Baptiste in the third round. In the men’s singles, second seed Alexander Zverev dropped a set against Argentina’s Mariano Navone but recovered to win 6-1 3-6 6-3. Defending champion Casper Ruud raced to a 6-0 6-1 win over Spain’s Jaume Munar, while third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime also progressed.
