Injured Barty retires from French Open, leaving women's draw wide open
- 3 years ago
World number one Ash Barty retired from her second round match at the French Open on Thursday with an injury, leaving the women's draw at the claycourt Grand Slam without its top two seeds following Naomi Osaka's earlier withdrawal.
Second seed Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner, pulled out after her first round following a row over her decision to boycott post-match media duties citing mental health concerns.
Australia's Barty, who lifted her maiden major at Roland Garros in 2019, was trailing 6-1 2-2 against Poland's Magda Linette when she decided she could no longer continue, having started the match with taping on her left thigh.
She had also struggled with the injury during her opening win and later said she suffered a flare-up through her left hip during the weekend.
"It's heartbreaking," Barty told reporters.
"We have had such a brilliant claycourt season, and to kind of get a little bit unlucky with timing more than anything to have something kind of acute happen over the weekend and just kind of run out of time against the clock is disappointing.
"It won't take away the brilliant three months that we have had, as much as it hurts right now."
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