Hailey Baptiste was just beginning her glowup, emerging as a top-flight player and a magnetic personality after years of building up her chops lower down the ranking.
But the good times have been put on hold – at least for a while.
No. 26 seed Baptiste was forced to retire from her second round match when she took a scary fall and torqued her left leg on Wednesday in Paris. The American was trailing China’s Wang Xiyu at the time, 5-4 in the opening set.
It was Baptiste’s father that rushed on the court to tend to her during this difficult moment.
It’s the worst possible news for Baptiste, who was having a great clay season and defending round of 16 points in Paris. Earlier this spring she had saved six match points to defeat world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, and in her first-round match in Paris she saved two match points to defeat former champion Barbora Krejcikova.
We’ll cross our fingers as we wait to her from her team about the severity of the injury.