(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Iga Swiatek gave everyone a moment rarely seen on a tennis court as the Pole’s phone started ringing while the Pole was preparing for Elena Rybakina‘s serve. On Wednesday night, Swiatek and Rybakina met in the Rome quarterfinal.
In the very first game of the match, the play was interrupted for a minute when a phone started ringing. After realizing it was her phone that was ringing, Swiatek ran toward her bag to turn it off. It took Swiatek a few seconds to locate the phone before handing it to her team.
Ring Ring, Ring Ring ð±
Wonder who was calling? ð pic.twitter.com/jiwBknOCy0 — wta (@WTA) May 17, 2023
Swiatek started strongly but it ended in a very unfortunate way
Swiatek came out absolutely firing against Rybakina, winning the first set with a 6-2 score.
In the second set, Swiatek had a 4-2 lead and a break point for a double-break lead. But Rybakina forced a tie-break, in which Swiatek injured her thigh and had to leave the court for a medical timeout. Swiatek continued to play but retired four games into the third set.
“Hi Guys. I’m sure you’re thinking about what happened last night. We’re checking it. During the second set I got a thigh injury. The diagnostic is in progress. More info in the following days. Will keep you updated,” Swiatek tweeted on Thursday morning.
After the match, Rybakina said she noticed Swiatek’s movement was hampered after the thigh injury. “I saw something happen in the tiebreak, on almost the last point but I didn’t know how serious it is. I saw that the first two games she started really aggressive so I understood that she couldn’t really move that much.
but she was still making good returns and I knew that I had to be focused. I know myself that if anything is hurting you’re trying to go for it and a lot of times it works. So she probably did the same, but after, I guess it was too much,” Rybakina said.
