She fought bravely, but in the end, French tennis player Harmony Tan could not finish her match against Elina Svitolina. On the contrary, she had to be driven off the court.
Bitter tournament exit for French player Harmony Tan. The 24-year-old had to abandon her second round match against Ukrainian Elina Svitolina injured and exhausted. At 3:6, 7:5 and 1:5, the bravely fighting Tan only dragged herself across the court, so that even the referee spoke to her – and the match came to an end.
Serve from down court after medical timeout
Tan’s pain even seemed so severe that she could not perform and had to be wheeled off the court in a wheelchair to the encouraging applause of the Margaret Court Arena crowd.
At 1:4 in the fourth set, Tan took a “medical timeout” to possibly get back into the match. Her physiotherapist taped her lower leg. But only a few minutes after Tan’s return to the court, it was clear that the world number 107 would not be able to finish the match.
Tan propped herself up on her racket, had to serve from the bottom. Even her mother, who was sitting in the stands, gestured for her to end the match early so as not to risk a worse injury.
The Parisian-born right-hander had beaten Kazakhstan’s Yulyaa Putinzeva 6-3, 6-3 in the first round to earn her match against Svitolina. She had reached the second round of a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time in her career, after the French Open in 2021.
