‘Really disappointing’ – Barbara Schett, Tim Henman reflect on ‘missed opportunity’ for Elina Svitolina after injury

Barbara Schett believes Elina Svitolina was left upset at having to retire against Linda Noskova because of the “missed opportunity” after the draw “opened up beautifully”.

She said afterwards she “got a spasm” and her back was “completely locked”.

Svitolina was in tears as she left the court while Noskova will face Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska in the quarter-finals.

The highest seed left in that half of the draw is 12th seed Qinwen Zheng and none of the players remaining have ever made a Grand Slam semi-final before.

“A missed opportunity for Svitolina, that’s why she was probably so teary, not because of her back, but because of that missed opportunity,” said Eurosport expert Schett.

“Against Yastremska, she could have won. That section has opened up beautifully.”

The top half of the draw has seen world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, world No. 3 Elena Rybakina and world No. 5 Jessica Pegula all lose earlier than expected.

Schett added: “I love that there’s upsets and new names popping up, especially in that section of the draw.

“Of course, you have the world No. 1 Swiatek out, and Rybakina there. We also had Pegula there and they all lost.”

Svitolina returned to the tour last April after giving birth and made the quarter-finals of the French Open and last four at Wimbledon.

Eurosport expert Tim Henman said it must be “so frustrating” for an injury to derail Svitolina’s Australian Open’hopes.

“Svitolina has been such an inspirational story coming back as a mother and playing great tennis,” he said.

“So frustrating to be playing well at the latter stages of an event and then just to suddenly have that come on. I’ve had that problem before and there’s nothing you can do once you get the shooting pain and you get the spasm, you just can’t move.

“Really frustrating, really disappointing. She speaks wisely that she’s got to take her time and prioritise her health and we hope to see her back playing well at the big events in the future.”

Asked afterwards about the draw seemingly opening up in her half following several shock results, Svitolina said: “Everyone is strong.

“Everyone is playing great tennis. If they beat top 10 or if they beat some good players on the way to quarter-finals, semi-final, or the final, that means they are meant to be there.

“Even if you take my opponent today, Linda, I know she beat Iga. She’s a good player and played really, really well the matches before as well, so she’s in good form.

“So, I mean, I cannot say that this was like an open draw in a way.”