Elina Svitolina overcame local favourite Ons Jabeur to keep her bid for a third straight title on track at the Dubai Championships.
The Tunisian trailed two-time tournament champion Svitolina 7-6 (7/4) 4-0 when she threw the towel in after clearly suffering from the effects of a fall in the first set.
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Jabeur, the top tennis player in both Africa and the Arab world, appeared to roll her ankle and also hit her shoulder. She took an immediate medical timeout to get it checked over.
She was able to carry on in the second set for just a handful of games before it became obvious her chances of turning the match around had gone.
Third seed Svitolina, who has now won her last 10 Dubai matches, said the prospect of becoming the first woman to win three editions of the tournament was great motivation.
The Ukrainian said: “Today I didn’t really feel in a match mood, I don’t know why. “I was struggling a bit, I had a very slow start.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. I told myself that I’m here to make history of the tournament.”
