TORONTO — Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli wanted to build on her recent success at this week’s Rogers Cup.
Instead she’s leaving the tournament early and her immediate playing future is uncertain.
Bartoli retired early in the second set of her third-round match against Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova due to an abdominal injury.
She didn’t have specifics on the severity of the problem but was hopeful she’d be able to play in the upcoming U.S. Open.
Bartoli said she was scheduled to have more tests done Thursday evening.
She added that her doctor and physiotherapist initially described the problem as an “overload.”
“Kind of excess of tiredness and exhaustion on my body they feel,” she said.
“But it’s so large, the pain is so large and we can’t really say right now exactly (if) there is a tear at some point or if it’s just like a huge tightness.”
Rybarikova led 7-6 (5), 1-0 when the seventh seed from France stopped the match. Bartoli was in obvious discomfort as she walked to the player bench area, where she had a trainer stretch her arm and leg.
Bartoli, who has battled hamstring issues of late, said that she has been very focused on her training but the last few weeks have been a grind.
“Everything that happened for me since a month (ago), it’s not without any tiredness,” she said.
“And obviously it took me so much energy to win my first Grand Slam that at some point I will have a kind of low and it’s normal.
“I’m human. At the end of the day I can’t be winning after winning after winning without feeling at some point a kind of exhaustion.”
Bartoli, who accepted a wild-card entry into the US$2.369-million tournament, said she felt fine in her opening victory here. She recently pulled out of a tournament in Stanford, Calif., due to a hamstring strain.
Bartoli won her first career Grand Slam singles title last month at the All-England Club. The U.S. Open — the final Slam of the season — begins Aug. 26 in New York.
Top-seeded Serena Williams had little trouble in her third-round match Thursday under sunny skies at Rexall Centre, dispatching No. 13 Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-0, 6-3.
“She wasn’t able to play her game as much as she wanted to,” Williams said. “When you play such a high-ranked player, you have to go in there with the mindset of do the best you can before they can step all over you and do well.”
Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland also advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) win over American Sloane Stephens.
Fourth-seeded Li Na of China fought back from a three-game deficit in the final set for a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic.
Ivanovic, the No. 16 seed, held serve at love for a 5-2 lead before Li won the next three games to pull even. Li hit a nice volley winner to set up match ball in the tiebreaker and advanced when Ivanovic hit the ball long.
“I was feeling in the first set I didn’t have the time to prepare my game plan,” Li said.
“So start of (the) second (set) I was feeling OK, I tried to hit more balls to the backcourt to see if I have the chance to turn the match.”
Radwanska needed 85 minutes to complete the victory over her 14th-seeded opponent.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Radwanska said.
“She’s a very solid player, very consistent. She’s not giving any free points. So lots of good rallies and a quick first set, but then I think she started to play much better.”
Fifth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy also won a tiebreaker in the final set, holding off Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 7-6 (3). Romania’s Sorana Cirstea defeated No. 15 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4.
In the late matches, defending champion and sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic beat 12th-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-3, 6-3, while Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova topped 10th-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-3, 7-6 (4).
There are no Canadians left in the women’s singles draw. In second-round doubles play, Ottawa native Gabriela Dabrowski and Toronto’s Sharon Fichman defeated Austria’s Sandra Klemenschits and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-5.