Bencic withdraws from Roland Garros with arm injury
Belinda Bencic has withdrawn from Roland Garros due to an arm injury, she announced Friday in a post on social media.
The Swiss, who reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January in her first Grand Slam tournament back from maternity leave, had been drawn against No. 12 seed Elena Rybakina in the first round, but told fans that she "re-aggravated" the injury -- which had previously forced her to retire after losing the first set to Maria Sakkari in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia just over two weeks ago -- on Wednesday in a pre-Roland Garros practice session.
But the World No. 39, who has a 21-9 win-loss record this season after missing all of 2024 to give birth to her first child, said the prognosis around is positive.
She added that "with two weeks of complete rest, [she] will be able to recover and heal fully" in preparation for the grass-court season. The 28-year-old has reached the fourth round of Wimbledon three times, and has played in five grass-court finals in her career.
A lucky loser will be drawn to replace Bencic in the draw, and Rybakina will face qualifier Julia Rieira of Argentina in Bencic's place. The match features in the same section of the draw as defending champion and No. 5 seed Iga Swiatek.
