Clara Tauson was forced to retire from her Wuhan Open matchup with Jasmine Paolini due to a leg injury in the deciding set, sending the Italian into the quarter-finals.

Tenth seed Tauson gave as good as she got against two-time grand slam runner-up Paolini in the 93 minutes the duo spent on court, inching ahead when she took the first set 6-3.

The Dane converted her first break point in game three then followed up with another in game nine, while she also gave up little on her own serve, firing off five aces.

But the second set began with three straight breaks, two of which went Paolini's way, and after the Italian registered two more breaks back-to-back, a decider was required.

However, Tauson appeared to be struggling with an injury to her groin or right thigh at the end of set two, and that issue continued to plague her at the start of the third.

Tauson managed to win her first service game, but after Paolini broke in game four to move into a 3-6 6-1 3-1 lead, the Dane was unable to continue.

Paolini, who will face either Iga Swiatek or Belinda Bencic for a semi-final place, admitted the victory did not arrive in the manner she had hoped.

"First of all, I'm so sorry for her. She was playing amazing tennis. I was struggling a lot. Hopefully she recovers soon," Paolini said.

"What can I say? I was just thinking about staying there on every point. She was hitting winners everywhere. It was tough today, but I stayed there all the time."

Get well soon Clara @JasminePaolini's message to her opponent after the No.10 seed was forced to retire through injury.#WuhanOpen pic.twitter.com/PFwwSq5Lae

— wta (@WTA) October 9, 2025

Data Debrief: Paolini matches doubles partner

Paolini has booked her fifth appearance in a WTA 1000 quarter-final this year, having already made the last eight at Miami, Rome, Cincinnati and Beijing.

She is only the second Italian to achieve that feat in a single season, after Sara Errani – with whom Paolini has won doubles titles at Roland-Garros this year and the 2024 Olympics – made six WTA 1000 quarter-finals in 2013.