{"id":333899,"date":"2025-10-26T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/333899\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:16:11","slug":"rybakina-pulls-out-of-pan-pacific-open-citing-back-pain-before-semifinal-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/333899\/","title":{"rendered":"Rybakina pulls out of Pan Pacific Open citing back pain before semifinal match"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Elena Rybakina pulled out of the Pan Pacific Open on Saturday, citing a back problem a day after her quarterfinal victory clinched the last remaining spot for the WTA Finals.<\/p>\n

The 2022 Wimbledon champion<\/a> was due to face Linda Noskova in the semifinals at the Tokyo tournament.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m very sorry I can\u2019t play today,\u201d Rybakina said in a statement<\/a>. \u201dI have been having problems with my back this week and can\u2019t play 100%.”<\/p>\n

Noskova will face Belinda Bencic in Sunday’s final after the Swiss player beat Sofia Kenin 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-2 in the other semifinal match.<\/p>\n

Bencic heads into her 10th career final, which comes 10 years after her previous Pan Pacific Open final appearance, a loss in 2015 to Agnieszka Radwanska. Bencic also won the Olympic singles gold medal<\/a> and doubles silver in Tokyo four years ago.<\/p>\n

Rybakina beat Victoria Mboko 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Friday to take the eighth spot for next month\u2019s lucrative WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

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At the WTA Finals, scheduled Nov. 1-8, Rybakina will join top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula, and Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n

Gauff is the defending champion<\/a> in Riyadh. The American beat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in last year\u2019s final and received $4.8 million in prize money.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Elena Rybakina pulled out of the Pan Pacific Open on Saturday, citing a back problem…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":333900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[165450,8642,2766,8650,165449,62,1464,67,132,68,146982],"class_list":{"0":"post-333899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-2022-wimbledon-champion","9":"tag-belinda-bencic","10":"tag-elena-rybakina","11":"tag-linda-noskova","12":"tag-pan-pacific-open","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-wta-finals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115440660440581549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}