Eugenie Bouchard Retires From Her Opening Round Match Against — WTA China Open

Eugenie Bouchard did not make it through her first match since returning from a concussion suffered at the U.S. Open. She was forced to withdraw from the tournament, as well as subsequent tournaments in Tokyo and Wuhan, China.

Petkovic went over to check on Bouchard as she sat in her chair and revealed that last year’s Wimbledon finalist is still being troubled by the blow she took to the head in New York. After the match ended, the German said that Bouchard told her that she felt very dizzy and the symptoms of the concussion came back when “she gets physically active”. “I feel it’s truly misfortune on the grounds that I thought she was playing so well again and I trust she shows signs of improvement and keeps up her great play”.

The Chinese capital’s air pollution was in the “very unhealthy” range, with a few fans wearing facemasks, but Tsonga said he did not know if that was what caused his problem.

“I don’t know. You know, nothing in me can calculate if it’s enough oxygen for me or not”, he said. I just play tennis. It came just like this, on one run. “But I hope it’s nothing important”, Tsonga added.

The Canadian’s retirement came on the heels of four other withdrawals in the women’s draw on Sunday, including top-seeded Simona Halep, who retired from her match against Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena with a recurring Achilles injury. Maria Sharapova is also side-lined from Beijing with injury.

Seventh seed Carla Suarez Navarro advanced with a 7-6 (7/1) 6-2 triumph over Monica Puig, while Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame American Sloane Stephens 3-6 6-3 6-4 and 15th seed Roberta Vinci downed Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck 6-2 6-2.

Third seed Flavia Pennetta, the US Open champion, is now the on-paper favourite among the women.