
Spain’s Paula Badosa was forced to retire from her women’s singles quarterfinal match against Czech Marketa Vondrousova due to heatstroke on Wednesday.
Badosa lost the first set 6-3 before requiring a medical timeout on Court 4 ahead of the start of the second set.
After lengthy treatment, the Spaniard was unable to continue and announced her retirement from the match, before leaving the court in a wheelchair.
"I have suffered a heat stroke as you all have seen, and I did not feel fit to continue competing in the match," Badosa said, in comments posted by Tokyo 2020."Along with the pressure of the competition, how special these days are, these are things that happen in sport -- and today, I had to go through that terrain.
“It was a shame to end my participation this way. The conditions have been demanding from day one, we tried to adapt as best as possible, but today the body has not resisted as needed,” Badosa added.
Marketa Vondrousova, Naomi Osaka’s conqueror, advances to the women’s semifinals where she’ll face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
The 23-year-old Badosa subsequently withdrew from her mixed doubles match with compatriot Pablo Carreño Busta.
The Spaniards had been due to face Polish pair Iga Swiatek and Lukasz Kubot in the first round on Wednesday.
Badosa and Carreño Busta were replaced in the draw by France's Fiona Ferro and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
The French pair ended up losing 6-3 7-6 to the Polish duo.
“I leave with a feeling of pride for having given absolutely everything for my country, for having represented it in the most professional way that I could," Badosa said."I am going to focus on recovering, working to be well and giving myself the opportunity to return to an event like this,” said Badosa.
Her retirement comes after both Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev publicly criticized the scheduling of matches at Tokyo 2020.
Both players have said it would be preferable to start the matches later in the evening when conditions have cooled down.
During his singles match against Fabio Fognini, Medvedev told the umpire: "I'm a fighter, I will finish the match, but I can die.
"If I die, is the ITF going to take (sic) responsible?"
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