(Reuters) – Elina Svitolina entered the Brisbane International semi-finals after her opponent Johanna Konta retired with a hip injury during the third set of the quarter-final contest on Thursday.
World number nine Konta, who had made slow starts in her previous two matches at the Pat Rafter Arena, claimed the first set 6-1 but lost momentum in the next as Svitolina grew in confidence to level the contest at 1-1 after a tiebreak.
The Briton called for an injury timeout to treat her right hip ahead of the decider but was unable to continue despite holding serve for two games to hand Svitolina victory.
“I don’t feel too comfortable saying really too much because, actually, I don’t know yet until tomorrow morning,” Konta said after the match. “Hopefully it’s nothing more than a low-grade strain and more muscle spasm more than anything.”
Third seed Svitolina next plays the winner of the clash between defending champion Karolina Pliskova and 2012 winner Kaia Kanepi.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich came from behind to dump out France’s Alize Cornet 3-6 6-2 6-3. Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova plays Aleksandra Krunic in the other quarter-final.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
