The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa said goodbye with an injury to her left leg from the Stuttgart tournament in the middle of the third set against the Russian Aryna Sabalenka, second in the WTA rankings.
Badosa, who had already requested medical assistance in the final stretch of the second set, which he won to tie the match, could not continue after two hours and twenty minutes of play. At the time of withdrawal, the clash was even. Sabalenka won the first set 7-6(4), Badosa the second 6-4 and the third was equal to three games.
The New York-born Spaniard, who had defeated fellow Russian Diana Shnaider in the first round, was aiming for her second straight win since the Australian Open and it was her second match on clay this season.
Badosa, who lost the first set in the tiebreaker, improved in the second although he began to notice discomfort in his leg and back and requested medical attention in the ninth game, just before serving to close the set.
The Spaniard was able to continue and score the partial and get the third on track. It was 3-1 in the final set but from there it slowed down. After the sixth game, he chose not to force and retire.
It was Badosa’s sixth confrontation with the world number two. Sabalenka had won the last three. Two precisely in this German tournament and the most recent, weeks ago, in the Miami Masters 1000.
Sabalenka is in the quarterfinals of a tournament in which she has been a finalist three times although she has never been able to win.
