Carla Suarez Navarro will play for the Connecticut Open championship, despite completing just one full match this week and playing less than four sets.
The 29-year-old Spaniard advanced on Friday to the final when Monica Puig of Puerto Rico retired during their first set of their semifinal with an abdominal injury.
Suarez Navarro will face Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who upset fifth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in the first semi-final.
"I feel like I didn't play and I'm in the final," Suarez Navarro said. "But, well, I cannot do nothing."
Suarez Navarro won her first match against Barbora Strycova in straight sets. Her second-round opponent, Johanna Konta, withdrew with an illness.
She was leading 6-3 in the quarter-finals on Thursday when third-seeded Petra Kvitova bowed out with a shoulder injury.
Puig was leading 4-3 after exchanging service breaks with Suarez Navarro when she left the court holding her abdomen.
The reigning Olympic champion returned five minutes later, lost the next game, then approached the net in tears and announced she could not continue.
"It was a bit of an abdominal strain that I started feeling in my second service game", she said.
"I just gradually got worse from there. Obviously with the US Open so close, it's better not to make it worse."
The 24-year-old said she is hopeful of playing in her first round match in New York against Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland on Tuesday.
Puig's injury was the latest in a string of problems for the Connecticut Open that began when top-seeded Simona Halep withdrew with a right Achilles injury just before the start of the tournament.
Illness forced out sixth-seeded Australian Ashleigh Barty and seventh-seeded Kiki Bertens.
All of them are expected to play next week in the U.S. Open.
