New York
AP
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Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka returned to the US Open semifinals with out hitting a ball on Tuesday evening as a result of the lady she was supposed to face within the quarterfinals, 2023 Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová, pulled out of their match with an injured knee.
According to the US Tennis Association, Vondroušová is the primary girl to give her opponent a walkover – the time period for when a tennis participant withdraws from a match earlier than it begins – on the US Open within the quarterfinals or later since 1988, when Steffi Graf superior to the ultimate when Chris Evert didn’t play their semifinal.
“I tried my best to take the court today, but during the warm-up, I felt again my knee, and after consultation with the tournament doctor decided not to risk aggravating the injury,” Vondroušová, a 26-year-old left-hander from the Czech Republic, stated in an announcement launched by the USTA. “I appreciate all the support this tournament and apologize to the fans who were looking forward to the match.”
She had superior to the quarterfinals with a three-set victory over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina on Sunday evening.
With one of many two nighttime matches in Ashe scrapped Tuesday, the USTA didn’t change Sabalenka vs. Vondroušová on this system with one other contest, however arrange the boys’s quarterfinal between 24-time main champion Novak Djokovic and 2024 runner-up Taylor Fritz to start at 8 p.m. That was initially supposed to begin each time Sabalenka-Vondroušová ended.
Sabalenka now will meet No. 4 Jessica Pegula within the semifinals on Thursday. That is a rematch of final 12 months’s championship match at Flushing Meadows, which Sabalenka gained in straight units.
Vondroušová has been as excessive as No. 6 within the WTA rankings however a sequence of accidents over time saved off the tour for stretches at a time. That included operations on her wrist in 2022 and on her shoulder final 12 months.
She entered the US Open ranked sixtieth and unseeded.
“So sorry for Markéta after all she’s been through,” Sabalenka wrote on social media. “She has been playing amazing tennis and I know how badly this must hurt for her.”
Pegula moved into her second grand slam semifinal by eliminating two-time main champion Barbora Krejčíková 6-3, 6-3 earlier Tuesday.
Pegula had been 0-6 in main quarterfinals till upsetting Iga Świątek in that spherical at Flushing Meadows a 12 months in the past.
Now the 31-year-old American is the primary girl to make the ultimate 4 on the US Open in consecutive years with out dropping a set since 23-time main champion Serena Williams did it yearly from 2011 to 2014.
“I’ve been able to kind of go into those matches and really take care of business,” Pegula stated.
The final two ladies’s quarterfinals are scheduled for Wednesday: No. 2 Świątek vs. No. 8 Amanda Anisimova – that’s a rematch of final month’s Wimbledon ultimate, which Swiatek gained 6-0, 6-0 – and No. 11 Karolína Muchová vs. No. 23 Naomi Osaka.
That will probably be Osaka’s first grand slam quarterfinal for the reason that 2021 Australian Open, the place she wound up claiming her fourth main trophy.