Elena Rybakina underlined why she is the new favourite to lift the Wimbledon title with a dominant performance against Anna Kalinskaya under the roof on Centre Court before her opponent retired injured.
With 2022 champion Rybakina leading her fellow 25-year-old 6-3 3-0, Kalinskaya left the last-16 match in tears after she was unable to recover from a wrist injury.
The Russian 17th seed had taken a medical timeout midway through the first set.
Russian-born Kazakh player Rybakina is the highest seed left in the women’s draw and will face either Elina Svitolina or Wang Xinyu in the quarter-finals.
After a flurry of big names were knocked out over the weekend, Rybakina is also the only former Wimbledon champion left in the women’s draw.
The fourth seed was actually broken in the first game of the match and trailed 3-1 in the opener, but won five consecutive games, with two breaks to love, to take the first set.
She then broke at the first opportunity in the second, defended a break-back point, and broke again to set up a commanding lead.
At that point Kalinskaya, who had been visibly struggling since the middle of the first set, decided not to risk further injury and forfeited the match.