China Open champion Anisimova pulls out of Wuhan, Ningbo with left calf injury

A day after winning the China Open, her second WTA 1000 tournament of the year (and her career), Amanda Anisimova has withdrawn from this week's Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open with a left calf injury.

The news doesn't come as a major surprise, as the World No. 4 -- who qualified for the year-end WTA Finals Riyadh this past week -- felt less than 100 percent in Beijing. One of her wisdom teeth was extracted just prior to the China Open, and after winning her opening-round match over Katie Boulter in Beijing, she began to experience pain in her foot and calf.

She persevered and played through the discomfort, willing her way through a series of hard-fought matches that were both physically and mentally taxing. After taking a 13-11 tiebreak from Shuai Zhang in her third-round win, three of her next four matches went the distance (save for her dominant 6-1, 6-2 beatdown of Coco Gauff in the semifinals).

"I was having pain in my foot and in my calf more into the third round," the two-time Grand Slam finalist told reporters after the China Open final. "I think it was obvious in one of the matches where I was in pain. I was just hurting all day when I was walking. I'm still having a bit of pain, but it's nothing series. It's just annoying aches and pains.

"The good thing at the end of the day is it's nothing that would limit me or prevent me to keep playing for the rest of the season."

Anisimova has also pulled out of the Aux · Ningbo Open, which starts next week. The WTA Finals, now less than a month away, kick off on Nov. 1. It will be Anisimova's first time playing the year-end, eight-player event.

Though she's No. 4 in the PIF WTA Rankings, Anisimova has surpassed Gauff, ranked third, for the No. 3 spot in the Race to the WTA Finals. Gauff is playing in Wuhan this week.