{"id":483013,"date":"2026-02-18T12:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483013\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T12:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:47:09","slug":"lucky-loser-ruzic-reaches-dubai-qf-as-rybakina-retires-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483013\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Loser Ruzic Reaches Dubai QF as Rybakina Retires \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, February 18, 2026<br \/>Photo credit: Lintao Zhang\/Getty<\/p>\n<p>Top players continue to fall from the Dubai draw and a lucky loser has emerged as a big winner.<\/p>\n<p>Lucky loser Antonia Ruzic led top-seeded Elena Rybakina 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 when the Australian Open champion retired due to apparent nausea-related illness.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\" alt=\"tennis express pro player gear\" class=\"wp-image-54451\"  data-\/>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s my first time as a lucky loser, you\u2019ve got to\u00a0 take your second chances and I\u2019m taking it,\u201d Ruzic said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not the way I wanted to win. I hope Elena feels better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>World No. 67 Ruzic scored her second win over a Grand Slam champion in this Dubai draw following her 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 opening-round victory over 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old Ruzic will face either former Olympic gold-medal champion Belinda Bencic or AO semifinalist Elina Svitolina for a semifinal spot.<\/p>\n<p>Two-time Grand Slam champion Rybakina\u2019s retirement makes her the latest star to depart the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships draw.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s top two-ranked players, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Swiatek, withdrew before the tournament began. Doha champion Karolina Muchova, Doha finalist Victoria Mboko, Doha semifinalist Maria Sakkari and Olympic gold-medal champion Zheng Qinwen also all withdrew from Dubai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, February 18, 2026Photo credit: Lintao Zhang\/Getty Top players continue to fall from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-483013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}