Ash Barty has been forced to retire from her second-round match in the French Open because of a hip injury. The world number one had struggled through a win against American Bernarda Pera in the first round. And yesterday, after a medical timeout, she chose to abandon the match against Poland’s Magda Linette after losing the first set 6-1. It means that the world number 1 (Barty), world number 2 (Naomi Osaka) and world number 3 (Simona Halep) are not playing in the Open. Someone who is there? Serena Williams – who is chasing the record of 24 Grand Slam titles set by Margaret Court. Barty admitted she had “my fair share of tears this week” but said the injury made it “unsafe” to carry on. “Everything happens for a reason. There will be a silver lining in this eventually,” she said. How do you spell legend? Oh yeah, we just did.