{"id":458960,"date":"2026-02-09T22:40:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/458960\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T22:40:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:40:47","slug":"amanda-anisimova-retires-from-qatar-open-with-physical-issues-ending-title-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/458960\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Anisimova retires from Qatar Open with physical issues, ending title defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amanda Anisimova<\/a>\u2019s defense of the title that propelled her up the WTA Tour rankings in 2025 ended prematurely Monday night in Doha, Qatar, after the world No. 4 had to retire down 5-7, 7-6(3), 4-1 to world No. 418 Karol\u00edna Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1.<\/p>\n

Anisimova led by a set and a break midway through the match, but began to struggle physically as the second set wore on. After Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1 came through a tiebreak in that set to level the match, the American\u2019s condition worsened, and she had her blood pressure checked down 2-1 in the third set.<\/p>\n

From then on, Anisimova was unable to chase balls down, and two games later she shook hands with her opponent at the net to end the match and her defense of the Qatar Open title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not how you want to win,\u201d Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1 said during her on-court interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I felt like we played good tennis for those two sets. It went long so of course you start to feel it in the body. I also started to feel it, but luckily I\u2019m through to the next round. I hope she\u2019s gonna be okay for the next week.<\/p>\n

Despite the circumstances, the result is another big step in Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1\u2019s comeback. The 33-year-old Czech, who has a career-high ranking of world No. 1 and has won 17 WTA Tour titles, is returning from a severe foot injury she sustained at the U.S. Open in 2024. She had two surgeries on her left ankle after spraining it three points into a match against Jasmine Paolini in New York, and has played six tour-level matches since, all in 2026.<\/p>\n

For Anisimova, the loss will see her leave the top 5 in the world rankings. The 24-year-old\u2019s title win at this tournament 12 months ago, her first WTA 1000 trophy, was the spur to the best season of her career, which saw her reach two Grand Slam finals before winning another WTA 1000 title at the China Open in Beijing.<\/p>\n

Another match at the Qatar Open also ended in retirement, after Emma Raducanu<\/a> shook hands with Camila Osorio trailing 2-6, 6-4, 2-0 in the third set of their second-round match. Raducanu had also struggled physically during her Transylvania Open final defeat<\/a> to Sorana C\u00eerstea in Cluj-Napoca, Romania on Saturday, receiving medical treatment in both matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amanda Anisimova\u2019s defense of the title that propelled her up the WTA Tour rankings in 2025 ended prematurely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-458960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}