Iga Swiatek suffered a quad injury as she lost to good friend Maja Chwalinska in the Wuhan semi-finals.
The Pole suffered a 7-5 6-1 defeat to good friend Chwalinska in what was a competitive opening set.
Swiatek had come back from a break down in the opening set but Chwalinska’s creativity saw her edge to victory.
After the opening set, Swiatek had a medical time-out on a quad injury which saw Chwalinska coast to victory.
Speaking to the press after her match Swiatek revealed that she actually suffered the injury at the start of the tournament, “From the beginning of the tournament, I kind of felt pain in my quad,” Swiatek explained to the WTA website.
“I’ve been able to manage that day by day and we were already thinking of withdrawing after I played with Magda in the first round but I was quite able to play normal, so I wanted to push, and we knew that it’s nothing like that it’s gonna get worse or something, so in that case, you just need to block it out.
“But today was just too much, and that’s unfortunate because I felt like we’re playing great tennis and wanted to continue. Later on, I knew it’s going to be tough to win, but I didn’t want to honestly retire because wanted Maja to win it normally.”
That result means that Elina Svitolina has qualified for the WTA Finals while Swiatek’s place looks in severe doubt.
It will be Svitolina’s fourth appearance at the WTA Finals and she becomes the first mother since Kim Clijsters in 2010 to qualify for the event.
As for Chwalinska, the Pole will now face Sonay Kartal in the Wuhan final after the Brit defeated Jelena Ostapenko in two dramatic tiebreaks.
The final will be the first meeting between Chwalinska and Kartal.
