Three players were forced to retire mid-match today due to injury. Ironically, none of them were related to cramping or the heat. Zheng Jie was trailing 4-1 to Sveta when she fell on her already injured left wrist. Considering she's icing it before she's even walked off the court, I suspect it might be a break of some sort.
The scariest retirement came from Vika Azarenka, who authoritatively took the first set from Serena, 63 and was down a break in the second set when you could see she started to physically labor. It almost looked like she was hyperventilating between points. At the changover she called for the trainer and looked like she was going to blow chunks at any minute. After disappearing into the lockerroom to get treatment, Vika came back out and clearly looked wiped. Watching her attempt to carry on, while fighting to just stay upright, was just scary and sad. ESPN speculates that it's virus related and Lena D apparently confirmed that Vika did bring a virus into the tourney. There are other reports that it was food poisoning.
Hope the kid gets better. I know she'll recover physically. But a retirement while a set up on Serena for a spot in the quarterfinals is going to haunt her for bit.
The weirdest retirement goes to Monfils against Gilles. It was two sets to one when LaMonf called it quits, citing a right wrist injury. This wouldn't be odd except that (1) he has history of retiring mid-match, (2) it's a Grand Slam and you play through pain, and (3) after the match he said at first he thought the injury was in his head.
I don't know. Seeing as how you have on girl who retired because she may have broken her wrist, and another who was trying to play while trying to stay upright and conscious, this seemed kinda weak.
