The Kazakh walked out to warm up, then told the stands she could not play. Leylah Fernandez was handed a walkover into the semifinals, where she will face Kamilla Rakhimova.

Rybakina had been managing the injury for days. The question was never whether she could get through one more match in Tokyo; it was whether doing so would cost her the tournament that actually matters for her year.

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming today, but unfortunately I won’t be able to play,” she told the crowd, according to AFP. “I’ve been struggling for a couple of days with a little injury.”

She was blunter about the trade-off: continuing in Tokyo at less than full fitness, she said, was difficult with “a very important tournament coming up.”

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Thursday sealed the ranking, Friday ended the week

Rybakina had already produced the result of her Tokyo week on Thursday, beating Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-3 to secure the year-end No. 1 ranking presented by PIF for the first time in her career.

That context frames the Friday decision. She had the ranking in the bag and a schedule-defining tournament nine days away. Pushing on in Tokyo offered a title; sitting down offered a healthier body for Indian Wells.

Nine days to the WTA Finals

The 2026 WTA Finals run at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from 8 to 15 November, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams of the season. Rybakina has said she plans to be there.

In an official statement released through the tournament, she was more specific about the problem than she had been at the net.

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“Unfortunately, I’ve been experiencing inflammation and pain in my neck, which has been affecting my ability to play at my best,” she said, via the WTA.

Her 2026 season has already produced four titles, two of them Grand Slams at the Australian Open and the US Open, with Ningbo added the week before Tokyo. Finishing it in Indian Wells, with the year-end crown and the season-ending title on the same résumé, is the obvious prize left on the calendar.

Fernandez meets Rakhimova in the Tokyo semifinal next.

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