Injuries are beginning to build up for players in the latter stages of the 2025 season.
Some ATP and WTA players including Jack Draper, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Elina Svitolina have already ended their seasons this year.
There are also players on tour who are still continuing despite existing injuries, with Tommy Paul being encouraged to withdraw from tournaments this year.
The injury list continues to grow, as a two-time Grand Slam champion has now retired from her match at the China Open.
Barbora Krejcikova retires with knee injury at the China Open
It had already been a testing season for former Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, who did not even play her first match of the season this year until May.
This was due to a back injury, which forced Krejcikova to miss the Australian Open, Middle Eastern swing and the sunshine double.
After being unable to defend her Wimbledon title, Krejcikova fell to her lowest ranking in five years, but there have been some more positive signs since then.
Following an emotional ending to her Wimbledon title defence, Krejcikova started to pick up form once again and rose back into the top 40 after reaching the US Open quarterfinals.
Krejcikova had already won two matches in Beijing against Anna Blinkova and ninth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, before she suffered another setback in her third round match at the China Open.
In just the first game of her match against McCartney Kessler, Krejcikova took a medical timeout after appearing to feel something wrong with her left knee.
Despite this, Krejcikova continued playing and actually found herself, 6-1 4-2 up, and appeared to be heading towards victory.
However, Kessler would then win eight of the next nine games, before Krejcikova was forced to retire after the knee injury appeared to be worsening.
Following her retirement from singles, Krejcikova subsequently withdrew from her doubles match alongside Katerina Siniakova.
What is next for Barbora Krejcikova?
It is not yet clear as to how severe this injury actually is, with Krejcikova yet to provide any updates on social media.
However, the world number 34 is scheduled to remain in China, as she looks to become seeded for the Australian Open next year.
Krejcikova has 528 ranking points to defend until 2026, and will therefore need to continue competing if she is to stand any chance of being seeded at the Australian Open next year.
The Czech’s next scheduled tournament is at the Wuhan Open, which is set to begin on Monday, October 6.
Krejcikova is also entered into the stacked WTA 500 event in Ningbo, where she would currently have to play qualifying due to the number of high-ranked players in the field.
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