WUHAN (China): World number one Serena Williams withdrew from the Wuhan Open on Tuesday after falling ill midway through the first set of her second round match against Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.

The American top seed was leading 6-5 after breaking Cornet’s serve with a smash only for the doctor to come on court at the change over and take the 32-year-old’s temperature.

Serena, who was playing in her first match since winning her 18th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open earlier this month, sat solemnly, head down with a towel around her neck and a thermometer in her mouth before opting against continuing.

Serena had showed flashes of her usual brilliance but did not look at full fitness throughout her hour of activity on the centre court.

Her exit only added to the headache for organisers of the inaugural $2.4 million hard court event, where top names tumbled in early action after the city’s tennis trailblazer Li Na announced her retirement from the game last week.

“I’m sorry to all the fans in Wuhan that I had to retire from my match against Alize today,” Serena said later. “I felt dizzy and nauseous in the first set and unfortunately couldn’t continue.

“The tournament organisers have done an amazing job preparing the facilities for this year’s event and I really hope to come back to the Wuhan Open in 2015.”

Cornet beat Serena at Dubai in February and had a third-round win at Wimbledon. The Frenchwoman is the first player since Justine Henin in 2007 to beat Serena three times in year, the WTA said, and has improved to 3-3 in career meetings with the most dominant woman in tennis.

Serena was not the only high-profile retirement.

Former world number one and 10th seed Jelena Jankovic was also forced to quit her second-round match due to a back problem on Tuesday in the first set while trailing American Coco Vandeweghe 4-1.

That followed the departure of Romanian world number two Simona Halep, who was beaten by an ultra-aggressive Garbine Muguruza.

The Spanish 20-year-old smashed 34 winners as she knocked out the second seed 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and set up a third-round meeting with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who battled back from a 5-0 first set deficit to edge Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

It was a bad day for seeds on other courts, too.

Italian Sara Errani, seeded 11th, 13th seed Russian Ekaterina Makarova and 16th seed German Andrea Petkovic all fell in the second round.

Errani was ousted by American Alison Riske 6-4, 6-4, while Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky defeated US Open semi-finalist Makarova 6-4, 6-1.

Danish eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to Williams in the Flushing Meadows final in New York, narrowly avoided joining the exodus after battling back from a break down in the third set to edge Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4).

Sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada overcame a break in the third set to beat Mona Barthel of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 while Angelique Kerber of Germany, seeded seventh, had a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the highest seed standing at the tournament at third, had a relatively easy outing in the day’s last singles match. The Czech world number three brushed past Italian qualifier Karin Knapp 6-3 6-0 in just over an hour.

The new WTA tournament attracted almost all of the top 20 women, but most of them are already out of contention.

On Monday, fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, ninth seed Ana Ivanovic, 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova, 14th seed Lucie Safarova and 15th seed Flavia Pennetta all made early-round exits to leave the tournament wide open.

World number four Maria Sharapova remains and must feel in with a good chance of winning the $2.4 million tournament which reaches its climax on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014