Elena Rybakina’s injury nightmare continues with the former Wimbledon champion withdrawing from another high-profile tournament.
The world No 4 has become the latest player to pull out of the WTA 1000 China Open.
Rybakina has not played competitive tennis since the US Open at the beginning of August as she withdrew from the season-ending Grand Slam ahead of her second-round match simply stating: “Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from my match today due to my injuries”.
Her US Open campaign started on a troubled note as she also parted ways with her long-term coach Stefano Vukov on the eve of the major.
Rybakina’s Flushing Meadows withdrawal was her eighth in 2024 and eight soon became nine as she also pulled out of this week’s Korea Open with organisers revealing it was due to a back injury.
And that same injury has now also forced her out of the China Open as she joins nine other top-30 players on the list of withdrawals.
World No 1 Iga Swiatek (personal reasons), Danielle Collins (illness), Maria Sakkari (shoulder injury), Ons Jabeur (shoulder), Victoria Azarenka (no reason given), Linda Noskova (personal reasons), Elina Svitolina (foot injury) and Marketa Vondrousova (shoulder) are the other big-name players who will also not feature at the WTA 1000 tournament.
But for Rybakina there are major question marks about her schedule for the remainder of the 2024 tennis campaign. Her next event is the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, which will run from October 7-13, but it remains to be seen if she will play.
The 25-year-old has played in 14 tournaments this year, winning the Abu Dhabi Open and the Stuttgart Open, but several events were marred by withdrawals.
She reached the quarter-final of the Dubai Tennis Championships before handing Jasmine Paolini a walkover due to gastroenteritis-like illness.
Her health woes also kept her out of the Indian Wells Open and after playing three tournaments in a row, she also pulled out of the Italian Open as she “did not feel well enough to compete”.
An abdominal injury resulted in her withdrawal from her Berlin Open quarter-final match and she subsequently also withdrew from the Eastbourne International.
After losing in the semi-final at Wimbledon, the 2024 Paris Olympics was next on her agenda but she never made it to Roland Garros due to bronchitis and she then also skipped the Canadian Open before returning at the Cincinnati Open.
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