The Kazakh needed to win two more matches and reach the final to become the world No.1.<\/p>\n
But an ankle injury meant she was unable to complete her quarter-final tie against Swiatek.<\/p>\n
Rybakina called for a trainer in the fifth game with the score 40-40, though she trailed the first set 4-1.<\/p>\n
She attempted to continue playing but managed just one more point before retiring, and she is now a doubt for the US Open at the end of the month after being spotted with tape running up her leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I feel not the greatest, I couldn\u2019t even push from the serve,\u201d Rybakina said after retiring.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt\u2019s painful to walk. We\u2019ll know more tomorrow when we have the MRI. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been bothering me for a long period of time, but felt like I had it under control.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt was feeling OK before the match but unfortunately one wrong movement, one landing, and something happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rybakina\u2019s shot at top spot only became possible because of Sabalenka\u2019s shock Round of 16 defeat to Sara Bejlek.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, who has been world No.1 since October 2024, went into the week on 8,760 points, with Rybakina narrowly trailing on 8,316.<\/p>\n
Rybakina has never achieved top spot and several fans shared their sympathies after she was cruelly ruled out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow\u2026 this is heartbreaking,\u201d wrote The Tennis Letter on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cHoping it\u2019s not an Achilles injury ahead of the U.S. Open. Hopefully she\u2019ll be okay and recover quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo matches away from the top seed, the US Open is automatically at risk. Aryna can breathe a sigh of relief right away,\u201d added Jakub Kazula.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally sad for Rybakina, hope she recovers in time for US Open, fingers crossed, great chance for Swiatek to go back to back events now in North America which happens very rarely,\u201d commented Martyn Waller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis star Elena Rybakina was cruelly denied at shot at becoming world No.1 after being forced to retire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20478,20521,20501,20489,20516,8095,20480,20526,20515,20171,20476,362,16909,20519,20518,5184,217,18237,20492,12468,20512,2380,2856,20479,20520,20510,20493,20490,20500,16901,247,20513,20485,20477,15990,15970,20488,20524,20486,411,20517,20495,20483,20509,15975,20508,20481,20522,3270,2265,20511,20498,20502,3133,20491,20482,28,1739,20514,16015,18465,20151,14907,20523,14901,15748,15700,20487,20525,14931,20504,20503,20507,20499,18138,4701,16389,15981,20494,20497,5823,20484,20496,463,3070,20506,20505,15978],"class_list":["post-54902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-s-shock-round","tag-s-shot","tag-16-defeat","tag-316-rybakina","tag-760-points","tag-8095","tag-a-doubt","tag-a-long-period","tag-a-sigh","tag-a-tennis-star","tag-a-trainer","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-all-class","tag-an-achilles-injury","tag-an-ankle-injury","tag-aryna","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-control","tag-cruel-fashion","tag-cruz-hewitt","tag-cusp","tag-events","tag-fans","tag-fingers","tag-great-chance","tag-her-hopes","tag-her-leg","tag-her-off-spot","tag-her-quarter-final-tie","tag-his-match","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jakub-kazula","tag-just-1-the","tag-just-one-more-point","tag-kayo","tag-kayo-sports-new","tag-kazakh","tag-martyn-waller","tag-more-tomorrow","tag-north-america","tag-not-the-greatest","tag-october-2024","tag-one-landing","tag-one-wrong-movement","tag-overseas-live","tag-relief","tag-retiring","tag-risk","tag-rybakina","tag-sabalenka","tag-sara-bejlek-sabalenka","tag-several-fans","tag-shot","tag-swiatek","tag-swiatek-rybakina","tag-tape","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-star","tag-tennis-star-elena-rybakina","tag-the-best","tag-the-biggest-aussie","tag-the-cincinnati-masters-watch","tag-the-end","tag-the-fifth-game","tag-the-final","tag-the-first-set","tag-the-match","tag-the-month","tag-the-mri","tag-the-rankings","tag-the-score-40-40","tag-the-serve","tag-the-tennis-letter","tag-the-top-seed","tag-the-u-s-open","tag-the-us-open","tag-the-washington-open","tag-the-week","tag-the-world-no-1-but","tag-their-sympathies","tag-time","tag-top-spot","tag-two-more","tag-us-open","tag-world-no-1","tag-world-no-1-hopes","tag-world-no-1-spot","tag-your-first-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}