Emma Raducanu struggled with a stomach bug during a marathon second-round loss to Wang Yafan at the Australian Open.
The former US Open champion, playing only her fourth match since returning from eight months out and three surgeries, had battled back strongly from a set and a break down to force a decider.
But Raducanu then began to show a lot of discomfort, clutching at her chest and abdomen before calling the trainer two games in.
She had her blood pressure checked and took some pills before resuming, and she battled hard to try to turn the match around but Wang held firm to win 6-4 4-6 6-4 after two hours and 55 minutes.
It appeared Raducanu was struggling with her breathing but she revealed in her press conference that she was feeling sick having gone into the contest under the weather.
“I think I just had a bit of a stomach bug beforehand,” she said. “Now I feel a little bit better. I had some time.
“During the match, third set I was 30-0 up serving. Then all of a sudden I just felt so sick, just really weak and nauseous. Throughout the third set I think everyone could see it was a bit of a battle.
“Like physically, body-wise, I felt fine. It was more I was throwing up in my mouth. Then after the match, it came out. Now I’m OK. I’ll get over it. It just sucks with the timing.
“I was actually feeling good about my tennis. Mentally, I don’t know why, I just felt really composed the entire time. Even in the first set when I was making a ton of errors with the wind, I kind of always had this feeling that I was coming back, just tidy up the errors. I felt pretty composed throughout.”
Raducanu is no stranger to medical time-outs and retirements but she was determined to keep going this time.
“I’ve been in that situation before in matches, whether it was with illness or injury, and retired a few times,” she said.
“With what I went through last year, you feel awful right now, at some points I couldn’t really see the ball very well, but I think it’s made me so much tougher. There was no way I was going to pull out. She was going to have to beat me, and she did. She served it out.”
Raducanu’s exit followed those of Katie Boulter and Jack Draper and means Cameron Norrie, who battled from two sets down earlier to beat Giulio Zeppieri, is the only British player through to the third round.
Raducanu comfortably won her first-round match against Shelby Rogers, but the American looked very rusty after a long break herself which made it difficult to gauge the 21-year-old’s true level.
This was a much bigger test, with Wang a former top-50 player now ranked 94 who is still working her way back up the game after choosing not to travel amid China’s restrictive Covid policies.
The 29-year-old’s game initially held up better than Raducanu’s in the breezy conditions and she looked in control at one set and 2-0 up, at which point the British player cut down her errors and fought her way back into the contest.
She broke to lead 5-3 with a sizzling cross-court winner but tentativeness crept in as she tried to serve out the set, with two chances going begging.
Raducanu did not let the disappointment affect her, though, and refused to be hesitant when more chances arrived on Wang’s serve, drilling a backhand winner to clinch a mammoth 65-minute set.
At that stage it appeared Raducanu was the favourite but her physical issues quickly became apparent and she was unable to turn the match back around in her favour.
She leaves Australia greatly encouraged for what is to come, though, saying: “There were doubts whether I would be able to make the Australian Open trip.
“I think that to be here is a bonus, a good starting point I would say, because I started putting good practice sessions together with (coach) Nick (Cavaday), we’re doing good work off the court.
“I’m feeling very positive. I really just want to play a full season. The encouraging thing is, even though I played two back-to-back three-setters in Auckland, a three-setter today, body-wise, strength-wise, I didn’t come up with any random niggles.
“It was just me throwing up. That’s fine. That’s not normal, but it’s like a one-off.”
Swiatek passes Kerber test to reach Italian Open quarter-finals
Two-time Italian Open champion Iga Swiatek advanced to the quarter-finals of this year's tournament with an impressive 7-5 6-3 win over Angelique Kerber on Monday.
Three-time grand slam winner Kerber provided Swiatek with a real step up after routine victories over Bernarda Pera and Yulia Putintseva in the first two rounds on the clay in Rome.
Kerber responded to Swiatek's first break – which came in the eighth game – with one of her own, but the world number one then recaptured her composure to force a series of break points in Kerber's next two service games, finally converting at the eighth attempt to take the opener.
Kerber refused to go away, breaking straight back in the first game of the second set, but Swiatek upped her game to take the contest away from the 36-year-old.
Swiatek dropped just three further points on her own serve from there, adding three breaks of her own to set up a last-eight meeting with Madison Keys for Tuesday.
Data Debrief: Swiatek unmatched on clay
While Kerber rolled back the years to trouble Swiatek early on, she lacked the staying power to live with the world number one in longer rallies on a surface where she is truly unmatched.
Her win ratio at clay-court events at WTA 1000-level now stands at 88.2 per cent (30 wins, four defeats), the best of any player to have played a minimum of five matches since the format's 2009 introduction, ahead of Serena Williams at 88 per cent.
Osaka sees encouraging Italian Open run halted by Zheng in last 16
Naomi Osaka's promising Italian Open run was halted by Zheng Qinwen on Monday, as the seventh seed denied the four-time grand slam champion a quarter-final place.
Following Saturday's triumph over Daria Kasatkina – her second successive straight-sets win over a top-20 opponent in Rome – Osaka laughed off the "Clayomi" moniker given to her by some fans.
On Monday, her old troubles on the surface came back to the fore as Zheng dominated from the off to make the tournament's last eight for a second straight year, winning 6-2 6-4.
Osaka saw her serve broken in the very first game only to hit straight back, but Zheng assumed control by taking seven straight games to go from 2-1 down in the opener to 2-0 up in the second set.
The 21-year-old produced a clinical performance and converted all four of her break points, winning 78 per cent of first-serve points to Osaka's 68 per cent as she teed up a quarter-final clash with either Coco Gauff or Paula Badosa.
Data Debrief: 'Clayomi' no more as Zheng triumphs
Osaka impressed on a surface long regarded as her worst in Italy, but it was a bridge too far for her on Monday, Zheng reaching her fourth WTA 1000 quarter-final.
Since the format's introduction in 2009, she is just the second Asian player to reach multiple quarter-finals on both hardcourts and clay at that level before the age of 23, the other being Osaka.
Djokovic bemoans 'completely off' performance after early Italian Open exit
Novak Djokovic lamented his dismal showing as Alejandro Tabilo profited from the world number one's "completely off" performance to triumph at the Italian Open.
Tabilo stunned Djokovic with a straight-sets victory in the third round on Sunday, winning 6-2, 6-3 in his maiden ATP Tour clash with the Serbian.
The Chilean advances to the fourth round at a Masters 1000 event for just the second time after Indian Wells in 2023, with Djokovic unable to explain his struggles in Rome.
"I just wasn't able to find any kind of good feelings on the court, to be honest, striking the ball. I was completely off," he said.
A six-time champion in Rome, the 36-year-old won his opening-round match at the ATP Masters 1000 event against Corentin Moutet.
However, Djokovic was inadvertently hit on the head by a falling water bottle when leaving the court after that victory.
Whether that incident impacted his performance against Tabilo remains to be seen.
"I don't know, to be honest. I have to check that," he said. "Training was different. I was going for [a] kind of easy training yesterday.
"I didn't feel anything, but I also didn't feel the same. Today under high stress, it was quite bad – not in terms of pain, but in terms of this balance.
"Just no coordination. Completely different player from what it was two nights ago. Could be. I don't know. I have to do medical checkups and see what's going on."
Tabilo's next opponent will be Karen Khachanov, who saw off Francisco Cerundolo 6-2, 6-4, while Djokovic is made to wait for his 1100th match win.
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