Post by Admin on May 14, 2021 19:53:02 GMT
It was one of those cases where it was easy to feel sympathetic for both players. In the quarterfinals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, 35th-ranked Coco Gauff had just beaten world number one Ashleigh Barty by the unusual score of 4-6, 1-2, retired.
Said Gauff, “it's not a way you want to win a match. At the end when she told me she was retiring, forfeiting or retiring the match, I was a bit -- obviously I felt for her, but it's just like when you have the chance to play the No. 1 player in the world, you know, you just want to -- it's not a good feeling to win this way.”
Weather played a major role. At 2-all in the first set, rain halted the tennis for nearly two hours. Upon resumption, Gauff and Barty played one game, Barty holding serve to go up 3-2. Then came another delay. Following that brief interruption, the two continued. With Gauff serving at 4-5, Barty required five set points, at last whipping a sharp crosscourt forehand passing shot to close out the opener.
After holding serve at 2-1 in the second set, Barty summoned the trainer to examine her right arm. Barty had started to feel a familiar level of pain—an injury she’s occasionally grappled with since her mid-teens—and opted to retire.
“Yeah, it became worse while we were playing,” said Barty. “So I think that's the challenging thing is to make the decision to stop. It's never nice. It's the thing that I hate the most is not being able to finish a tennis match. But the pain was becoming too severe, so it was important that I listen to my body and of course try and do the right thing, knowing that we have a Grand Slam in two weeks' time.”
Said Gauff, “when she came up to me, I was shocked. I didn't know what to make of it, just because I didn't feel like there was anything going on.”
Said Gauff, “it's not a way you want to win a match. At the end when she told me she was retiring, forfeiting or retiring the match, I was a bit -- obviously I felt for her, but it's just like when you have the chance to play the No. 1 player in the world, you know, you just want to -- it's not a good feeling to win this way.”
Weather played a major role. At 2-all in the first set, rain halted the tennis for nearly two hours. Upon resumption, Gauff and Barty played one game, Barty holding serve to go up 3-2. Then came another delay. Following that brief interruption, the two continued. With Gauff serving at 4-5, Barty required five set points, at last whipping a sharp crosscourt forehand passing shot to close out the opener.
After holding serve at 2-1 in the second set, Barty summoned the trainer to examine her right arm. Barty had started to feel a familiar level of pain—an injury she’s occasionally grappled with since her mid-teens—and opted to retire.
“Yeah, it became worse while we were playing,” said Barty. “So I think that's the challenging thing is to make the decision to stop. It's never nice. It's the thing that I hate the most is not being able to finish a tennis match. But the pain was becoming too severe, so it was important that I listen to my body and of course try and do the right thing, knowing that we have a Grand Slam in two weeks' time.”
Said Gauff, “when she came up to me, I was shocked. I didn't know what to make of it, just because I didn't feel like there was anything going on.”