An exciting semifinal came to a cruel and unfortunate ending at Arthur Ashe Stadium after one player retired and left the court in a wheelchair.
Suffering from what appeared to be cramps in the second set against Caroline Wozniacki, Peng Shuai was forced to retire and was wheeled off the court in distress, likely caused by the steamy 90-degree heat.
Peng said she was cramping. It started in her legs and then moved to her back. She was in no condition to continue the match, but convinced the doctors to give her a chance.
“The doctor, she said to me, ‘You are not able really go out to fight, compete, because [you do not] look really well,’ ” Peng said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to give up. I want to try one more time,’ I know I’m not going to stay maybe too long, but I just want to try … to challenge her one more time.”
Prior to retiring, Peng was granted a medical timeout after collapsing near the wall of the backcourt in the middle of Wozniacki’s service game. Wozniacki was leading at the time, 7-6 (7-1). 4-3, with Peng having a chance for a break point. The timeout took about 20 minutes and no one was sure why it was even allowed.
“I didn’t know the rules. If it’s just cramping then you can’t have a medical [timeout], but whenever it’s heat illness, then you’re allowed to get treatment for it … but when she collapsed on the court that second time, I was like, ‘OK, this doesn’t look very good,’ ” Wozniacki said. “I wanted to go over and make sure that she was okay. I know that she’s had heart surgery when she was 13, so that’s definitely something that, you know, I think she was worried about, as well.”
USTA director David Brewer made it clear after the match, the issue was not cramps, but it was heat-related.
“It was determined by both the doctor and the trainer that she’s a well-conditioned professional athlete. She wanted to go compete. We understand that she would really not do any more harm to herself.” Brewer said. “She never received injury treatment for cramping.”
Peng was crying after she dropped to the court with a towel draped over her. Wozniacki crossed to her side of the net and consoled her, patting her on the back, before the retirement announcement was made. The two played only a handful of points after Peng came back on court before the match was called.
“It was really hard to watch for me when I saw her collapse on the court,” Wozniacki said. “Tennis is great, but health is more important. To see her struggling out there, I just wanted to make sure she was OK.”
The 28-year old Peng hadn’t dropped a set in the first five rounds prior to Friday’s semifinal. But several grueling, long 20-plus shot rallies in the heat in a match that already had lasted over two hours at that point, didn’t help.
The No. 10-seeded Wozniacki now heads to Sunday’s final, where she will face Serena Williams, a 6-1, 6-3 winner in the other semifinal. Wozniacki has lost eight of nine career matches against Williams.