Emma Raducanu retiring from her matches with an injury is quickly becoming a common sight on tennis courts worldwide.
In the first meeting between two of the last three US Open winners at the Italian Open, Bianca Andreescu advanced to Round 2 after Raducanu retired with a low back injury.
Andreescu dominated from the start against the World No.12 in Rome.
The 2021 US Open champion Raducanu held serve in a marathon opening game in the face of three breakpoints but her 2019 winning counterpart ran off five of the next six games behind two breaks of serve.
On the ensuing 5-2 changeover, Raducanu left the court for a medical timeout.
The Brit completed just four more games before shaking hands but not before dropping serve for a third time to trail 6-2, 2-1 in the match.
She would later tell reporters that the issue is one she’s been dealing with since her third-round exit from Madrid.
Meanwhile, the recently-crowned Madrid champion Ons Jabeur started her journey in Rome with a win.
The ninth-seeded Tunisian kept her winning streak going by defeating Sorana Cirstea.
She won the first eight games in her first match against Cirstea in eight years and led 6-0, 5-2, but had to hold off a furious late surge from the Romanian to move safely through to Round 2.
Jabeur steadied the course after losing four straight games to hold serve before a racing start to the ensuing tiebreak ultimately secured her a 6-0, 7-6(1) win.
