{"id":951675,"date":"2026-10-30T08:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/951675\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T08:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:26:23","slug":"rybakina-withdraws-from-tokyo-fernandez-advances-to-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/951675\/","title":{"rendered":"Rybakina withdraws from Tokyo, Fernandez advances to semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>World No. 1 Elena Rybakina withdrew from the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Friday because of a neck injury, handing Leylah Fernandez a walkover into the semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released, Rybakina said she was dealing with inflammation and pain in her neck.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dear fans, I\u2019m very sorry to announce that I\u2019ve had to withdraw from my next match,&#8221; Rybakina said in the statement. &#8220;Unfortunately, I\u2019ve been experiencing inflammation and pain in my neck, which has been affecting my ability to play at my best. It\u2019s a very difficult decision, as I love playing here and always appreciate the incredible support from the fans. I hope to be back again next year. Thank you all for your understanding and support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Get better soon Elena \u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83e\ude79 @leylahfernandez advances to the semifinals in Tokyo after Rybakina withdraws due to injury. #torayppo https:\/\/t.co\/Nic0AjzPnS<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 wta (@WTA) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WTA\/status\/2116049931521994957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the week, Rybakina had secured the\u00a0WTA year-end No. 1 singles ranking presented by PIF for the first time in her career, following an outstanding 2026 season that saw her win two Grand Slam titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fernandez will face lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova for a place in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Rakhimova defeated Australian qualifier Maya Joint 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 to reach the last four. Rakhimova rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the opening set to take it 7-5 before Joint fought back to win the second by the same score. Rakhimova dominated the deciding set, winning it 6-1 to seal her place in the semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>The win moves Rakhimova into her first semifinal at the WTA 500 level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World No. 1 Elena Rybakina withdrew from the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Friday because of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":["post-951675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951675","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=951675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}