NADIA PODOROSKA

Serena Williams is out of Wimbledon after she stopped playing her first-round match because of a right leg injury.

Forget all that speculation about Serena Williams considering retirement after her emotional hand-to-heart gesture upon her Australian Open exit three months ago.

United States' Serena Williams makes a forehand return to compatriot Danielle Collins during a tuneup event ahead of the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill)MELBOURNE – Serena Williams withdrew from an Australian Open tuneup tournament citing a right shoulder injury on Friday within hours of setting up a semifinal match against top-ranked Ash Barty. Garbine Muguruza beat defending Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals, reversing their result of their 2020 final at Melbourne Park. On either side of a delay on outside courts because of rain, former Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian champion Angelique Kerber beat No. 4 Borna Coric out in the quarterfinals after wins over Australian players earlier in the day.

Sofia Kenin collected the WTA Player of the Year award on Tuesday after winning the Australian Open in January for her first Grand Slam title and finishing as the runner-up at the French Open in October. Kenin entered this year with an 11-11 career mark in Grand Slam tournaments and zero trips beyond the fourth round at any of the sport’s top four events. That triumph made Kenin the youngest Australian Open champion since 2008, when Maria Sharapova was 20. Kenin went on to get to the fourth round at the U.S. Open, then the final at the pandemic-postponed French Open before losing to Swiatek for the title. Mladenovic and Babos won two Grand Slam doubles titles this season, at the Australian Open and French Open.

She never had made the quarterfinals at any clay-court tournament until this trip to Roland Garros — and lost her only tuneup match on the surface 6-0, 6-0 last month. “My mentality has obviously changed,” said Kenin, who said she derived a boost of confidence from upsetting Serena Williams at Roland Garros a year ago. On the other hand, consider how dominant she has been along the way to becoming the lowest-ranked women’s finalist at Roland Garros since the WTA computer rankings began in 1975. Swiatek vs. Podoroska was the first women’s semifinal at Roland Garros between unseeded opponents since 1983 — and only one, Swiatek, truly seemed ready for the stage. I’m, like, not letting my opponents play their best tennis,” Swiatek said.

Poland's Iga Swiatek plays a shot against Argentina's Nadia Podoroska in the semifinal match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)PARIS – The Latest from the French Open (all times local):___4:20 p.m.Polish teenager Iga Swiatek has become the seventh unseeded player to reach the French Open final in the Open era after beating Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-2, 6-1. Swiatek will next face either two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova or Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin in Saturday's final. ___3:45 p.m.Polish qualifier Iga Swiatek has won the first set against Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-2 in the first semifinal of the day on Court Philippe Chatrier. ___12:25 p.m.Polish teenager Iga Swiatek and Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska will open play in the main stadium at the French Open.

A reporter wanted to know whether Schwartzman would be watching Nadal vs. Sinner. “For sure, I’m going to be awake,” said Schwartzman, who defeated Nadal at a clay-court tuneup in Rome last month. The ninth break put Schwartzman up 4-2 in the fifth when Thiem netted a backhand, and the last ended it, when Thiem put two drop shots into the net. From early on against Schwartzman, Thiem would bail out of points by trying mediocre drop shots, a bit of foreshadowing of the day’s denouement. He led the fourth 5-3, and held three set points while serving for it at 5-4.

(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)PARIS – The Latest from the French Open (all times local):___10:25 p.m.Polish teenager Iga Swiatek made it to her first Grand Slam semifinal by ending the surprising French Open run of qualifier Martina Trevisan of Italy. The reports said suspicious betting patterns concerned the fifth game of the second set when Sizikova was serving and broken to love. ___2:55 p.m.Nadia Podoroska is the first female qualifier in the Open Era to reach the French Open semifinals. Collins looked in control at 3-0 up in the second set but her Tunisian opponent won five straight games. This was her best run at the French Open while Collins had never previously been past the second round here.

(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)PARIS – The Latest from the French Open (all times local):___8:30 p.m.Two-time French Open runner-up Dominic Thiem survived a spirited comeback by a French wild-card entry to win their fourth-round match in five sets. He equaled his best Grand Slam showing by reaching his fourth major quarterfinal with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 win over Lorenzo Sonego. Organizers said the sixth-seeded German player did not consult their doctors before his fourth-round match against Italian teenager Jannik Sinner, despite the symptoms he later disclosed in his news conference after he was beaten 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. While there have been upsets in the women's draw, it's business as usual for Rafael Nadal among the men at the French Open. It's quickly becoming a day of upsets at the French Open, with Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan beating the fifth-seeded Kiki Bertens 6-4, 6-4.

Is it the two-week gap from the end of the U.S. Open to the start of the French Open? The women’s matchups established Saturday: Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin against Fiona Ferro; two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova against Zhang Shuai; Paula Badosa against Laura Siegemund; and No. “You can go out any round,” said Garbiñe Muguruza, the 2016 French Open champion who was beaten by the 57th-ranked Collins 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in Saturday's last match. The 22-year-old from Spain, ranked 87th, defeated 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 6-3. “It’s really nice, I think, overall for tennis to see new faces, young players,” Djokovic said.