Japanese teenager Ishii withdraws from the Q’Final of the Pan Pacific Open

Japan’s Sayaka Ishii withdrew from the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament on Friday due to an abdominal injury.

The 19-year-old qualifier, who was the only Japanese player remaining in the singles draw, secured her first two wins on the WTA Tour this week and was scheduled to face world number 16 and sixth-seeded Russian Diana at the Ariake in Tokyo Shnaider enter Colosseum.

The youngster is the daughter of former Yokohama BayStars shortstop Takuro Ishii, who had 2,432 hits in his Nippon Professional Baseball career, ranking 11th on the all-time list. He is now the hitting coach for the DeNA BayStars.

“I am very sad to have to retire,” Ishii said in a statement. “It was my best tournament in my career so far.”

Ishii defeated compatriot Sara Saito 6-1, 6-1 in the first round to emerge victorious again after advancing to the national championship final earlier this month.

The world number 279 then defeated 148th-ranked Turkish Zeynep Sonmez 4:6, 6:2, 6:3 in the second round on Wednesday, but had a medical timeout at the start of the third set due to abdominal discomfort.

“Unfortunately, I have a physical problem that I just don’t have time to heal,” she said. “Thank you everyone for your support and I will definitely be back.”

In the other quarterfinals, the third-seeded and ninth-seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina lost to the wildcard player Sofia Kenin from the USA 6:3, 6:4, while the British Katie Boulter prevailed against Bianca Andreescu from Canada with 6:2, 6:1 to reach a semi-final with Kenin on Saturday.

Shnaider will face either top seed and seventh seed Zheng Qinwen of China, the Paris Olympics gold medalist, or Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the other semifinal.

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