Jasmine Paolini was stunned by Sofia Kenin in the Middle East.
Jasmine Paolini was in tears after getting injured (Image: WTA)
Jasmine Paolini was left in tears before crashing out of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
The reigning champion fell and hurt herself at the start of the second set and took a medical time out.
Paolini continued crying as the match went on and didn’t win another game, suffering a 6-4 6-0 defeat to Sofia Kenin.
Paolini lifted the biggest title of her singles career in Dubai 12 months ago, beating Anna Kalinskaya in the final. But the No. 4 seed failed to repeat her heroics after an injury wrecked her title defence.
The Italian looked dominant in her opening match against qualifier Eva Lys, winning 6-2 7-5 after their match was rained off for four hours when Paolini had a match point. She returned and immediately got the job done.
But it was a different story on Wednesday. Paolini came up against former Australian Open champion Kenin in the last 16, and the American edged out the first set 6-4.
Things went from bad to worse for Paolini in the first game of the second set as she fell on the court while trailing 0-30 on her own serve and ended up in tears.
Jasmine Paolini fell and injured herself in the second set (Image: WTA)
The trainer came to the court and the 29-year-old took some painkillers during a medical time out. She appeared to have injured her foot.
Paolini was swiftly broken but continued to play, despite crying as the match went on. The second set lasted just 23 minutes, with the defending champion winning only one point on return as Kenin stormed through.
The world No. 4 will now lose 880 of the 1,000 ranking points she earned by lifting the title last year. Paolini has also entered the doubles event with her regular partner, Sara Errani.
The duo lifted the title in Doha last week and will be looking to keep their winning run going. But it remains to be seen whether Paolini can take to the court for their opening match later on Wednesday.
Paolini has yet to give an update on her injury. After beating Lys on Tuesday, she said she wasn’t trying to overthink her title defence and wanted to take each match at a time.
“I came here without any expectation, just trying to play matches,” Paolini explained.
“Now I can say ‘matches’ because could be also one match. But I happy how I played today, even if it was a tough match.”
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