Injury woes and shocking exits: Top stars missing from Mubadala Citi DC Open

The Mubadala Citi DC Open is set to begin on Monday. This year's competition will be without some big-name players who have decided not to participate for various reasons. Both women’s and men’s winners from last year, Spain’s Paula Badosa and America’s Sebastian Korda, will not return to the competition, meaning there will be a new champion this time around.

The women’s singles champion Badosa, who lifted the title last year after beating the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova with a score of 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, has struggled with back injury at times. She recently featured at Wimbledon, where she was knocked out after losing in the first round to Britain’s Katie Boulter with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. She recently announced that she will not participate in the event to fully recover from her fitness issues.

Men’s singles champion Korda, who lifted the title in 2024 after beating Italy’s Flavio Cobolli with a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-0, has not played any tennis since May 2019 because of a stress fracture he sustained in his right shin.

Wimbledon 2025 runner-up America’s Amanda Anisimova will not feature in the competition as well. The 23-year-old had an outstanding run in the third Grand Slam of the year, where she defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal as well. However, the final turned out to be a horror dream for Anisimova, who became the first women’s player to lose a Wimbledon final in more than 100 years without winning a single game. It was expected that after such a thumping defeat, Anisimova would look to stay out of action for some time, and that’s exactly what she did.

Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik was also due to feature in the competition but is currently taking a break. He lost in the third round of Wimbledon to Italy’s Cobolli. His fellow countryman, Tomas Machac, has also had his name removed from the list of players who were due to take part in the tournament. Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, who is currently taking part in the Hamburg Ladies Open and is set to feature in the quarterfinal on Friday against Anna Bondar, has also withdrawn from the tournament.