Elena Rybakina stopped in the middle of a service game at the Cincinnati Open on Thursday night, put her hands to her knees, and never really got going again. Trailing Iga Swiatek 4-1 in the opening set of their quarterfinal, the world No. 2 called for a trainer, was examined at her chair, went back out to play one more point, and then signaled to the umpire that she could not continue. The match had lasted 31 minutes. Swiatek reached the semifinals without having to finish it.
The WTA said Rybakina retired with a left ankle injury. In flash quotes provided to media afterward, she said she could not push off on her serve, and that the problem was not new. The ankle had been bothering her for a long period, she said, and had been under control until the load of the last two weeks caught up with it: a run to the final in Canada, two matches in quick succession in Ohio, and a rain-interrupted match against Magdalena Frech that she said left her feeling it more. She took a day off completely afterward. She said it felt fine before she walked on court. Then came one landing.
“It’s painful to walk, and we will know more tomorrow,” Rybakina said, referring to an MRI scheduled for Friday.
That is the extent of what is established. She has not commented on the US Open, whose main draw begins Aug. 30, and no member of her team has issued a statement about New York. She remains on the US Open entry list. The scan will produce a diagnosis; until it does, the only sourced description of the injury is the one the tour and the player have given, and the only timeline is the one she offered, which is tomorrow.
What the retirement did settle immediately was the ranking question that had shadowed the week. Aryna Sabalenka lost in the round of 16 to Sara Bejlek on Wednesday night, leaving Rybakina two wins from the top of the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time in her career. Reaching Sunday’s final would have been enough, regardless of the result. Instead she lost a quarterfinal she could not play, and Sabalenka’s hold on No. 1 survives another week without her striking a ball. GTN has tracked the arithmetic of that race all summer, and it is now closed for this cycle.
The timing is what makes this more than a tournament story. The seeding cutoff for the US Open falls on Monday, Aug. 24, the last ranking release before the draw, and Rybakina is projected to be seeded second behind Sabalenka. That projection is unaffected by Thursday night. Her fitness is a separate question, and one that no amount of ranking points answers.
She had been the form player of the fortnight until she stopped. Rybakina had not dropped a set in Cincinnati before facing Swiatek, having come through Diana Shnaider in the round of 16 and Frech before that. She arrived in Ohio a week after losing the Canadian Open final to Swiatek in straight sets, a match that gave the Pole a narrow lead in one of the more evenly balanced rivalries at the top of the women’s game. Rybakina won the Australian Open in January, her second major after Wimbledon in 2022, and has spent the season as the most consistent hard-court player on tour who has not held the No. 1 ranking.
She is also the fourth significant name from the women’s draw to leave this fortnight with a physical problem rather than a defeat. Elina Svitolina withdrew with an ankle injury on Tuesday of last week, days after saving seven match points. Victoria Mboko has not played since June and is out of the US Open with a knee injury. Emma Raducanu is out of New York as well. The Cincinnati withdrawal list has been running since before the main draw began, and the tournament is not finished.
Swiatek, who is defending the title she won here last year, said she had felt anxious watching it happen and hoped Rybakina would be fine. She plays Jessica Pegula in Saturday’s semifinal, a match neither player expected to reach in these circumstances. For Rybakina, the fortnight ends with a scan and a nine-day runway to a Grand Slam she is entered in and has said nothing about. Everything else is speculation until the imaging comes back.
