Kazakhstani tennis player Anna Danilina and Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic have ended their run at the US Open in the women's doubles event. In the second round, the third-seeded duo was forced to retire during the second set of their match against Germany's Tatjana Maria and Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez, reports infohub.kz.
The Kazakh-Serbian pair took the first set convincingly, winning it 6:1. The second set proved much more competitive. Trailing 5:6, the players decided not to continue, ending the match after one hour and thirty minutes.
The reason for the withdrawal was a knee injury to Krunic. At 4:5, the Serbian player jumped for an overhead shot and, upon landing, fell to the court clutching her left knee. Medical staff attended to her and applied a bandage, after which she attempted to continue.
She played a few more points, but at 5:6, while moving forward to return a shot, her injured leg gave way again. Danilina and Krunic then decided to stop the match. Krunic left the court in tears.
The Kazakh and Serbian players had been enjoying a successful season at Grand Slam tournaments. In 2026, they reached the final of the Australian Open and then, for the second consecutive year, played in the championship match at Roland Garros.
The US Open is an annual hard-court Grand Slam tournament, the last of the four majors in the calendar year. For the second year in a row, the US Open, which was first held in August 1881, starts a week earlier due to the rescheduled mixed doubles event. The total prize money of $108 million is a record for the majors.
Since 1978, matches have been played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
The defending men's champion is Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Jannik Sinner in last year's final 6:2, 3:6, 6:1, 6:4. Incidentally, the Italian, the world No. 1, withdrew from the 2026 US Open due to a knee injury.
In the women's draw, the 2025 champion was Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka. In the final, she defeated American Amanda Anisimova 6:3, 7:6 (7:3).