During the Washington Open, Chinese professional tennis player Wu Yibing collapsed and was forced to retire from a match against Yosuke Watanuk at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in the US Capitol.
Wu, 23, was leading 4-1 when he suddenly collapsed while approaching his chair. Video footage from Tennis TV captured the athlete’s collapse, and as a result of his retirement, his opponent, Watanuk, 25, advanced automatically to the next round.
Watch:
This occurrence came just weeks after Wu’s alarming collapse at Wimbledon.
At the time of the incident, Wu held the No. 90 position in the ATP world rankings. He faced a tiebreak defeat in the opening set and had lost the first two games of the second set when he started experiencing breathing difficulties.
Following an on-court medical examination, Wu was granted an initial three-minute time-out and was then taken to the dressing room. The time-out was later extended to 15 minutes. As reported by ESPN via The Sun, the decision to extend the break came after Wu fainted once again while in the dressing room.
Fortunately, Wu displayed signs of a complete recovery during the extended break, allowing him to return to the court and continue the match. Despite his valiant efforts, he ultimately lost the match to Tiafoe with a score of 6-3 in the second set and 6-4 in the third, concluding his Wimbledon campaign at the initial stage.
Wu later explained that he had been experiencing indigestion, attributing his distress to the food he had consumed the previous night. “There was something wrong with the food I ate last night – I even felt like I was losing my consciousness out there,” Wu stated, as reported by the Daily Express. He expressed that although he felt better after the medical timeout, his breathing was still impacted. Wu acknowledged that considering the circumstances, he was pleased with his performance and that he would undergo further medical examination to address the situation.
