Cellular South Cup: Marino retires, Rybarikova scores second title
World Number 80 Rebecca Marino of Canada retired from her first Women’s Tennis Association [WTA] title match, giving up a chance for the title to Slovakian World Number 105 Magdalena Rybarikova. The 20-year-old pro played for less than half an hour before
succumbing to left abdominal injuries.
The Canadian pro was seeded sixth at the Memphis tournament, and generated considerable publicity for her country due to the progress she made during the event. However, Marino’s game was not up to par on Saturday; she began the match with Rybarikova by
losing the first set, although she did score two aces before retiring. In addition to this, she also successfully converted two of four break points during the match, although she could not challenge her opponent to any. She was forced to retire soon after
giving up the first round 6-2 to Rybarikova, having played for just half an hour.
Rebecca Marino seemed very distressed at having to concede the match, crying into a towel after walking off the court following a consultation with her trainer. She explained later on that she had suffered the injury during her semi-final match against Evgeniya
Rodina.
Marino, who is one of the two Canadian pros at the 2011 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and Cellular South Cup, talked to reporters after her retirement, saying, “It first happened in the semi-finals against Rodina. As I kept playing today it got worse
and worse. I'm upset I had to retire in the finals but I didn't want to make the injury worse. If this injury gets worse, it's an injury that would take a long time to recover from.”
The Canadian player also issued an apology to spectators who attended the match, saying, “I love this tournament. I'm sorry I couldn't give you guys a better match. Magdalena played great the whole week though. She deserves to win.”
Rybarikova joined the WTA professional circuit in 2005, and won her first career title at the 2009 Birmingham event in England. This is her second win on tour. She defeated American eighth seed Vania King, Britisher Anne Keothavong, Alexa Glatch of America
and Czech pro Lucie Hradecka to reach the title match of the event. The 22-year-old picked up $37,000 as the new title-holder.
The Slovakian tennis pro addressed her opponent in her gracious acceptance speech, saying, “I'm very sorry for Rebecca. I didn't know she was injured, but I could tell when she was playing something wasn't right. But still, congratulations to her on a great
week. I saw her play a good match against Schiavone in Australia, very aggressive like Kvitova. She'll be a great player.”
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