Elina Svitolina revealed a painful hip injury had undermined her Australian Open campaign after her promising campaign came to a shuddering halt at Melbourne Park.
The pre-tournament title favourite with bookmakers, Svitolina had dropped just one set all year before suffering a 6-4 6-0 quarter-final loss on Tuesday to unseeded Belgian Elise Mertens.
After racking up a tour-best five titles in 2017 and starting the new season with another triumph in Brisbane, the Ukrainian held high hopes of breaking through for her maiden grand slam success.
Instead, Svitolina crashed out in the quarter-finals for a third time.
"Today was very tough for me physically. I was not ready to produce a good level of tennis," the 23-year-old said.
"She's a great player, so she has a good level, so I couldn't match it because physically it was very tough for me.
"Going into the tournament, I had a few issues with my health. Yeah, it was very sad that today I was not feeling great.
"Long rallies. I couldn't push on the serve.
"Today the serve was very bad. I gave her this chance to play well, and she did it."
Svitolina said she'd been hiding heavy taping under her playing shorts for all five matches at the Open.
"(The injury) was getting worse and then was up and down," she said.
"Sometimes it was fine but today she's playing good level, so I had to push myself.
"She didn't give me opportunities. All the credit to her."
Surviving on painkillers over the past fortnight, the world No.4 said she'd probably have scans to determine the full extent of the injury.
