The No. 2 seed was trailing Anna Kalinskaya in the first set of their quarterfinal match 5-1 when she called it quits due to a shoulder injury.

One of the more impressive, if unheralded, streaks on the WTA tour came to an end on Saturday in Berlin as Aryna Sabalenka retired from a tour-level match for the first time in her professional career.

Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed at the grass-court ecotrans Ladies Open, was trailing Anna Kalinskaya in the first set of their quarterfinal match 5-1 when she called it quits due to a shoulder injury. The quarterfinal had been inititally scheduled for Friday before it was postponed a day due to rain.

Sabalenka played her first professional match in 2014 on the ITF circuit, and began playing excusively at WTA level in 2018.

“I always do my best to fight to the end,” the two-time defending Australian Open champion said earlier this month at Roland Garros, where she battled through a stomach bug in a three-set quarterfinal loss to Mirra Andreeva.

She told reporters she never considered retiring from that match in Paris, despite playing in visible distress.