Coco Gauff retires against Alexandra Eala at Indian Wells after left arm felt "like a firework was going off"

For just the second time in her career, and first instance since the 2022 Cincinnati Open, Coco Gauff was unable to complete a WTA match due to injury.

Struggling with a left arm issue on Sunday, Gauff retired while trailing Alexandra Eala 6-2, 2-0 at the BNP Paribas Open. The world No. 4 took a medical timeout before the final game of the opening set but decided not to force the issue any further after her opponent converted her fifth break of the night.

She later described the discomfort being "like a firework was going off inside of my arm, and then my whole arm felt like it was on fire."

Commenting in quotes provided by the tournament, Gauff said the problem arose in the second game.

"We're going to figure out what it is tomorrow, but based off the feeling, being told that it's probably something nerve-related. Never had anything like this before, never felt anything, a sensation like this before," she said.

"And then as the match played, it got progressively worse, even when I wasn't using my arm on shots that I wasn't even using my left arm for."

In the tournament preceding the first stop of the Sunshine Double, Gauff posted a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Eala en route to her first Dubai semifinal.

The Filipino is through to the round of 16, as she strengthens her bid to break into the Top 30 for the first time.

"I want to say thank you to all the incredible women who have paved the way and who have advocated for themselves and for other women. Among them is Coco," Eala said as she wished the crowd Happy International Women’s Day during her post-match interview.

"So thank you Coco for being an amazing competitor and amazing role model. I really hope everything is well and you will recover soon."

Gauff credited her opponent's level on the day, noting that "I felt really bad to pull out, you never want to pull out, but more so for her because she was playing great tennis, and I don't want to take anything away from the way that she was playing.

"I'd rather finish the match and lose 6-0, but at that point I just felt that because the pain was getting worse and I didn't know what was going on. I just felt it was better to stop."

Linda Noskova awaits Eala, following her three-set win over Sorana Cirstea.