Hailey Baptiste’s celebration of a high-octane win over Barbora Krejcikova on Sunday didn’t last very long. The American tennis star had to retire from the second-round match against Xiyu Wang at the French Open with what appeared to be a knee injury. 

Hailey Baptiste suffered the horrific injury during the opening set. With the score at 5-4, Wang threw the serve. Baptiste answered with a powerful strike but appeared to hyperextend her knee while jumping for the subsequent return.

The world's No. 26 fell to the ground, wailing and crying with severe pain.

Watching his daughter crying in pain, Baptiste’s dad, Quasim, wasted no time and jumped from the stands to rush to his daughter. A second later, umpire Marija Cicak reached‌ the scene and urged Quasim to leave the scene.

Soon after, Cicak called the medics to help the tennis player. Hailey Baptiste was eventually led away from the court and retired from the game. 

The severity of the injury is still unknown, but aside from what became a hard-to-watch video on social media, the injury brought a very quick end to Baptiste’s big strike in the first round.

She consolidated her giant-killer image by defeating former World No. 2 and French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova. The injury ended what was a standout grand slam performance for the young American.

Former World No. 1 reacts to Hailey Baptiste’s injury

The injury ended a promising run for the rising star. She has been playing excellently at Roland Garros. Last month, she ‌shocked the world and consolidated her ‘giant killer’ reputation after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinal round.  

Right after her injury, former doubles World No. 1, Rennae Stubbs, made a post on her social media, highlighting the tennis star’s dad’s reaction. Like many fans, the Australian tennis legend was also heartbroken by Baptiste’s injury. 

“Hailey’s dad jumping on court today. Honestly, I know it’s not ‘allowed,’ and the umpire was doing her job, but H*** S***, that’s a dad seeing his baby in pain, and any parent going on court when their kid is like that, it’s ok with me!” she wrote on X. “I am gutted for Hailey and her team! Brutal scenes.”

The tennis world would be hoping that the American star hasn’t suffered any serious injury. However, after the slow-motion video went viral on social media, there is a growing fear that she might have suffered an ACL injury.

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Written by

Nandjee Ranjan

Edited by

Koushik Biswas