Nearing the season finale, players’ bodies are responding how they are supposed to after another grueling tennis calendar. In the last week in Ningbo and Osaka, many matches never reached the finish line. Eight players retired mid-match in the qualifying rounds of the two WTA events, five came in Ningbo, a WTA 500 event, and three came in Osaka, a WTA 250. 

The retirements arrived over two days, October 17 and 18. Players were looking to earn a main-draw spot, but before they could, they had to make a mid-match exit. 

Top seed Daria Snigur, who had just reached a career-high live ranking of No. 41, retired in the final qualifying round while trailing Katarzyna Kawa 6-1, 2-0. Kawa had improved on the previous day, when American Katie Volynets, who was ranked 88th, retired with a 6-1 lead in the first set and a 4-3 advantage in the second set. In effect, the 127th-ranked Pole reached the main draw after both opponents stopped playing. 

Third seed Anhelina Kalinina also retired in the final round, trailing Aliaksandra Sasnovich 5-3 in the first set, which put Sasnovich into the main draw. The other two retirements came in the first round. Fifth seed Magdalena Fręch retired against Han Shi, who beat Alex Eala in Wuhan last week, after losing the first set 6-4 and calling the trainer. Belgian teenager Jeline Vandromme retired against Alycia Parks, the sixth seed, when the second set was tied at 4-4, having won the first set 6-4. 

Coming to Osaka, it had its own share of surprises. Second seed Taylah Preston, who recently hit a career-high ranking of No. 86 and has won two titles this year, retired against fellow Australian Emerson Jones after losing the first set 6-0 in just 25 minutes. That came a day after Preston’s own first-round match against Haruka Kaji, which ended with Kaji retiring while trailing 3-1. Eleventh seed Elina Avanesyan also retired against Sayaka Ishii after dropping the first set 6-3. Out of all the stoppages, only one match had a stated reason. 

Season-end strain raises questions

A majority of the players were not able to cite reasons for their termination. Vandromme was returning to competition after a leg injury forced her to miss the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen last month, Fręch received treatment from the trainer in the first set before eventually pulling out, Kalinina’s exit was also unusual. Even after retiring, she still got into the Ningbo main draw as a lucky loser when Elina Svitolina withdrew. 

There were seven withdrawals from Ningbo and Osaka this week, with several players ending their seasons early, taking time off or preparing for the WTA Finals. Jessica Pegula and Svitolina pulled out of Ningbo, along with Anna Kalinskaya, who had retired in her opening match in Beijing and withdrew from Wuhan with an injury.

Camila Osorio and Clara Tauson both gave walkovers in their first-round matches in Wuhan and skipped Osaka. Fresh from the title run in Beijing, Qinwen Zheng also pulled out of Osaka. 

The main draw begins in Ningbo on October 19, headlined by top seed Elena Rybakina, who is coming off a withdrawal in Wuhan before the tournament kicked off, and second seed Iga Swiatek. Many players have entered the main draw without finishing their qualifying rounds. The upcoming days will reveal whether the rest of the draw arrives fresh or they also face the strain of the long season and catch up to them.