Latvia’s top-ranked tennis player Aļona Ostapenko retired from her opening-round singles match against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic at the Ningbo Open in China on Tuesday, trailing 3-6, 1-1, as reported by Sportacentrs.com. The abrupt exit halts her singles momentum just a week after reaching the semifinals at the Wuhan Open.
The Match Unravels in Ningbo
Playing on the central hard courts under 27-degree Celsius heat, Ostapenko immediately fell behind 0-3 in the opening set before receiving a medical evaluation on court. She broke Bencic’s serve in the fifth game with an unreturnable shot on her fifth attempt to narrow the deficit to 2-3, but dropped her serve again immediately. Bencic claimed the first set 3-6.
After splitting the first two games of the second set to reach 1-1, Ostapenko committed two consecutive double faults to fall behind 0-30 and elected to stop playing. Sportacentrs.com noted that no official reason for the retirement was immediately specified. The head-to-head record between the two players now stands at 3-1 in favor of Bencic.
Doubles Withdrawal Due to Illness
Following her singles exit, Ostapenko also withdrew from the WTA 500 doubles tournament in Ningbo. Partnering with Chinese Taipei’s Su-wei Hsieh, the pair was seeded second and slated to face the Norwegian-British duo of Ulrikke Eikeri and Quinn Gleason on Wednesday morning. LSM reported that the team pulled out of the doubles draw due to illness.
Prior to the withdrawal, the Ostapenko and Hsieh duo held the sixth position in the race to qualify for the WTA Finals doubles field, which features the top eight teams of the season.
Ostapenko Climbs to No. 24 in WTA Rankings
Ostapenko climbed to No. 24 in the WTA singles rankings following her Wuhan semifinal run, marking her highest position since mid-April. Because she had no ranking points to defend from the same period last season, her ranking will remain static following the first-round exit in Ningbo. For her singles appearance, Ostapenko earned $12,700 and one ranking point, according to tournament prize money distributions cited by Sportacentrs.com.
The Ningbo Open runs through October 25 as the penultimate WTA 500 event of the season, with the final tournament of that tier scheduled for Tokyo at the end of October. The season-ending WTA Finals begin on November 8 in Indian Wells, USA, featuring the top eight singles players and eight doubles teams.
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