Beatriz Haddad Maia was left in tears after she was forced to retire during her fourth-round match with defending champion Elena Rybakina.
The Brazilian was enjoying her best run at Wimbledon, having never previously got past the second round, but hopes of a first quarter-final appearance were taken away from her when she suffered a hip injury early in the first set.
She had a lengthy medical timeout trailing 3-1 and tried to carry on but after being unable to move during a Rybakina service game it was clear that she could not continue.
Having been in tears throughout the last game, she reluctantly walked to the net and shook hands with the score at 4-1.
It meant that Rybakina’s smooth progress continued as she was on court for just 21 minutes and was able to put her feet up to watch Ons Jabeur beat Petra Kvitova for the chance to play her in the quarter-finals.
Rybakina is joined in the last-eight by second seed Aryna Sabalenka, who cruised past Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The Belarusian is enjoying every minute of being back at this year’s tournament and did not waste much time in getting the better of the 21st seed, winning 6-4 6-0 on Court One.
She now plays Maddison Keys in the last eight, in what will a mouth-watering encounter, and her eyes will be firmly fixed on a possible semi-final clash with Rybakina.
The first set was even and on serve until Sabalenka struck at 5-4 to take the lead and that gave her the platform for a dominant second set, which saw her bagel the Russian in 27 minutes.
