By Erik Gudris | Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Carolline Wozniacki led in her match against Sam Stosur in Washington, D.C. before retiring with injury.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
An anticipated match featuring two marquee names in the WTA, that ended up on an outside court, ended up finishing earlier than expected in Washington, D.C.
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Top seed Sam Stosur finds herself moving on at the Citi Open after her opponent, former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, retired in their second round match.
Wozniacki led 7-5, 3-4, before an ongoing arm issue she picked up in the first set proved too much for her in the end.
“At this point, I just can't catch a break. I'm thinking, `I'm going to catch a break sooner or later.' But right now, it's just like one thing after the other,'' Wozniacki said to the AP. ''I feel like I'm hitting it pretty well. I'm serving well. And it's like, this happens. It's just like really disappointing.''
The unseeded Wozniacki fought back from being behind an early service break to take the first set 7-5. After that, she called for a medical time out to deal with pain in her left arm. The pain got so bad, that Wozniacki started running around her favorite backhand shot to hit forehands instead.
''There was a point where I hit a backhand and I just felt it, and I was like `Oh, it's nothing,''' Wozniacki said. ''But then I hit another backhand and I was like, `OK, it's something.' And it just got worse.''
After falling behind a break in the second set, Wozniacki decided to end the match before risking further injury.
''She started kind of running around her backhand a little bit more, which is pretty unusual for Caroline to want to do that. So I kind of thought, `OK, there's something going on,''' Stosur said. ''Sometimes it's quite difficult playing somebody who's injured.''
Despite the marquee status of both players, the second round match was instead scheduled late in the evening on an outside court instead of the main stadium.
Many fans on site and on social media wondered about the scheduling. The Citi Open is a combined ATP 500 and WTA International event.
“I notice there's not too many matches on center court for the women, unfortunately,'' Stosur said when asked about the scheduling. ''It'd be nice if we were kind of 50-50 on center court, that's for sure.’’
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