World No 4 Iga Swiatek has shared a message on social media after she was forced to retire at the 2026 Madrid Open on what she described as “a real rough day.”
The six-time Grand Slam champion retired due to a virus when trailing 6-7(4), 6-2, 0-3 against world No 34 Ann Li in the third round in Madrid.
Swiatek is next set to compete at the Italian Open, which will be held from 5 to 17 May. The former world No 1 won the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
In a post on her Instagram account, Swiatek wrote: “What can I say? It was a real rough day.
“It stings not having full control over my performance or being in charge of every decision.
“Today is a bit better and I’ll take the next day or two to recover fully. Then we’ll push forward with more hard work.
“I’m pretty excited for the next one in Rome.”
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Tennis legend Boris Becker, a former world No 1 and winner of six majors, replied to Swiatek’s post.
The German wrote: “Don’t be too hard on yourself!
“Even the greatest champions lose sometimes… you have great people by your side! Upwards and Onwards IGA.”
Following her retirement in Madrid, Swiatek said: “I’ve been feeling awful for the last two days. I think I have some kind of virus. Some hours I’ve been fine, but other times I’ve been feeling really bad.
“I’ve heard there’s something going around in the locker room, a virus that’s out there somewhere. I know I’ll be fine in a couple of days, but today I felt like I had zero energy, zero stability.
“I’ve been feeling really bad physically; yesterday was even worse. I thought maybe things would be better today, and maybe they were, but not enough to play that much.
“I knew it was going to be tough, but I still wanted to try, because I’ve been sick a couple of times in my career and I was able to win most of my matches. It depended on how bad I was going to feel, and this time it was quite a bit worse than the previous times.”
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