Rome: Former French Open champion Simona Halep retired from her Italian Open second-round match against Angelique Kerber on Wednesday with a calf injury, raising doubts over her participation at Roland Garros.
Third seed Halep was leading 6-1, 3-3 when she showed discomfort while trying to reach a first serve from her German opponent.
Halep massaged her left calf before hobbling to her bench, where she received treatment from a physio.
Unable to move, Halep decided to withdraw from the match and needed assistance to get off the court, causing doubt over whether she would be fit in time for the French Open, which begins on May 30.
Halep later wrote on Twitter that an ultrasound scan revealed a tear in her left calf.
“I will get an MRI tomorrow to understand the injury in more detail, but at the moment we are unsure of recovery time,” she said.
“I’m so disappointed to end my tournament in Rome like this but I will do everything I can to take care of the injury and be back as soon as possible.” Kerber will next face another former French Open winner, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, in the round of 16.
Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem rallied from a set down to battle past Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics into the third round of the ATP Italian Open.
US Open champion Thiem, a semi-finalist in Madrid last week, won through 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-0 in 2hr 33min against 44th-ranked Fucsovics in the clay-court tournament which acts as a warm-up for the French Open in which the Austrian has twice finished runner-up.
The 27-year-old will next play an Italian, either Lorenzo Sonego or wildcard entry Gianluca Mager, in a match in front of spectators, with 25 percent capacity allowed at the Foro Italico after the early rounds were played behind closed doors.
