Garbine Muguruza’s Australian Open preparations have been thrown into chaos after being forced to withdraw from her Sydney International quarter-final due to a right thigh injury.
Her exit means the winner of the all-Australian second-round clash between Daria Gavrilova and Samantha Stosur will advance straight to the semi-finals by walkover.
Muguruza pulled the plug just hours after admitting she was unhappy with her “weird” fitness following her second-round win over Kiki Bertens on Wednesday.
A week after retiring from the Brisbane International with cramps, Muguruza was leading 2-1 in the first set when she headed to the changeroom for what she later revealed was an adductor issue.
“Since the start (of the match) I felt a little bit my adductor, and I already felt it in Brisbane, so I thought I was going to be much better but in fact came back,” she said after the match.
“I asked for a medical timeout to try and make it better. It worked.”
However the world No.3 showed little ill-effects upon her return to centre court, claiming six of the next eight games to take a commanding lead against the 32nd-ranked Dutchwoman.
Bertens responded with a service break of her own midway through the second and saved a break point in the next game, but eventually fell 6-3 7-6 (8-6).
Muguruza entered the fourth day of the tournament as the only female seed left following the second-round exit of Venus Williams on Tuesday.
And while she insisted being satisfied with her game, she was less confident in her body.
“I do feel it’s good. I felt it already in Brisbane in the training and the training matches that I have been doing, too. So I’m not surprised. I’m happy the way I felt,” the Spaniard said.
“(But) not about my fitness state because I feel it’s a little bit, surprisingly, I don’t know, weird. But my tennis is good.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Polish star Agnieszka Radwanksa advanced to her fifth Sydney quarter-final with a straight-sets dismissal of American qualifier Catherine Bellis.
A finalist last year and champion in 2013, Radwanska resisted a strong first-set challenge from Bellis before running away with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 win on Wednesday.
The former world No.2 will play two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova for a spot in the final four.