Organisers at the Tianjin Open have announced that Caroline Garcia has withdrawn from the tournament due to injury.
The French world No.9 was set to play her third consecutive tournament in as many weeks. Over the past fortnight, Garcia became the first player in history to complete the Chinese double with titles in Wuhan and Beijing. On Sunday she defeated new world No.1 Simona Halep in straight sets to win the China Open.
During her triumph, Garcia has been nursing a right thigh injury, but it is unclear if this was the reason behind her withdrawal. Despite the issue, she has recently enjoyed victories over Dominika Cibulkova, Angelique Kerber, Elina Svitolina, Petra Kvitova and Halep.
“Unfortunately @CaroGarcia has had to withdraw from the #tianjinopen due to injury,” organisers said on Twitter.
As a result of her surge in form, Garcia now lies in the eighth and final qualifying spot for the WTA Finals in Singapore. She is now in a head-to-head battle with Johanna Konta, who needs to reach at least the final at next week’s Kremlin Cup in Moscow to snatch the position away from Garcia. Konta has suffered five consecutive first match defeats in tournaments.
“In Tokyo I was speaking with Jo Konta. We were just – not joking about it – but she was pretty safe to be in (Singapore). After we said, do you remember last year, Kuznetsova had to win and it was a really last minute change and everything? And the only chance [this year] was for someone to win Wuhan and Beijing (laughs).” Garcia told the WTA Inside Podcast.
“I’m so sorry for her. No one would believe someone No.19 in the world would win Wuhan and Beijing in the row, right? We changed all the prognostications for the last spot. It’s tennis. We know everything can change fast.”
In Tianjin Garcia was set to play Maria Sharapova in the first round. The Russian wild card will now take on Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu. The tournament will be headlined by Petra Kvitova and defending champion Peng Shuai.
On the first day of the tournament, all singles matches have been cancelled due to poor weather.
