One of the favourites to win the 2023 Roland Garros, Elena Rybakina is out of the event after pulling out before her match on Saturday.
The Kazakh player has been playing really strong tennis for a while now capturing the Italian Open trophy recently. She continued her good play at Roland Garros winning a few matches but withdrew from her match against Sorribes Tormo moments before it was supposed to take place.
It was a shocking withdrawal that surprised many but she had no choice after catching a cold which left her battling fever for the past few days. Her most recent match before this one happened two days ago when she defeated Linda Noskova in two sets.
She felt great during the day but at nighttime experienced fewer and cold-like symptoms which didn't go away despite her best attempts to get rid of them. She took medicine but it didn't help much. Her warm-up this morning made her realise that she would not be able to go. In the ensuing press conference, Rybakina explained that she had breathing difficulties.
Well, I think it's just an overall feeling that I cannot stay on the court more than 10 minutes. Ido one rally, and it's just -- and it was just the warm-up from the middle of the court. So if I cannot breathe, there is no chance I can even run and try to compete. So I think that's it
Expanding further on the situation Rybakina admitted that she tried everything but utlimately it didn't go well. She struggled with various symptoms but not being able to breathe is a big obstacle if you want to play a competitive tennis match.
Yeah, well, I saw the doctor, and they said that actually it's all a virus here in Paris. Yeah, I guess with my allergy, immune system just went down and I picked up something. As I said, I was not sleeping well two days. I had fever, headache. I mean, I think you can hear also. So, yeah, it's difficult to perform and obviously to run and even breathe. So I think that was the only right decision.
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