Kanepi, 37, ranked 74th in the world, had gone out of the still in-progress French Open in round one, and entered the ITF-level event in Caserta, also played on clay. She won her first round encounter against Misaki Doi, in two sets.

Pedone had a bye to the tournament's main table.

After losing the first two games, the Estonian pulled things back to 4:2, only for Pedone to string together three-in-a-row to take things to 5:4. Two games later and things were at 6:5 in the Italian's favor and, with no tie-break needed as Pedone took advantage of the third break-point presented to her, to take the set 7:5.

Kanepi then withdrew from the match and the tournament for reasons unknown.

She is next set to play from June 19 at another ITF tournament, in Sweden.

Former world number two Anett Kontaveit also went out of the French Open in the first round, leaving Elena Malõgina Estonia's most focused-on player at the moment.

Ranked 357th by the WTA, Malõgina beat another Italian, Nuria Brancaccio, ranked over 180 places above her, in straight sets on Thursday, and is into the quarter-finals in Caserta.

The French Open women's singles final between world number one Iga Swiatek (Poland) and Karolina Muchova, from the neighboring Czech Republic, takes place on Saturday. The men's singles semi-finals are today, Friday.

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