Updated 30 June 2025 at 18:13 IST
A tennis player having to retire in the middle of a match is never a nice sight, as athletes would prefer to lose on their own terms rather than be forced off the field of play due to injuries. However, dealing with injury issues is something that Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur has become all too familiar with, and her propensity for picking up ill-timed injuries reared its head during her first round Wimbledon 2025 match against Viktoriya Tomova.
The Bulagarian Tomova, who is ranke 111th in the world, was actually winning their match as she won the first set 7-6(5) and was leading 2-0 in the second set when disaster struck.
Jabeur had to call for a medical timeout in the first set and eventually retired from the match in the second set, leaving the court in tears.
Jabeur was unable to keep a lid on her emotions, clearly feeling the weight of the situation as well as of the number of injuries she's had to deal with in recent times.
However, she was unable to continue on in the end and had to retire from the match mid-way.
She has struggled so much with injuries lately that her ranking, which was once as high as number 2 in the WTA rankings, is now 59.
A shoulder injury led to her 2024 season to come to a premature end and when she made a comeback this year, she was quickly out again due to picking up a leg strain in the Miami Open.
One hopes the latest injury she has suffered is not too serious and that she can be back in action sooner rather than later.
Published 30 June 2025 at 18:13 IST