Wimbledon: Injured Serena Williams exits the Championships in tears

Serena Williams’ quest for the 24th Grand Slam came to a painful halt as the former world no. 1 retired with an ankle injury in her first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich at Wimbledon. The scores were tied at three-all in the opening set at the time of Williams’ withdrawal.

Williams looked to be in good form as she clinched a break in the fourth game to go up 3-1 on the Belarusian. However, the seven-time Wimbledon champion slipped during her serve in the fifth game. She also surrendered the break back to her opponent before leaving the court for an off-court medical time-out. Williams’ MTO also added to the doubts about her continuing the match. However, the American did return to the Centre Court to try to continue the match.

Serving in the seventh game, Williams’ emotions got the better of her as her physical struggles worsened. With the crowd encouraging her, Williams served a couple of points in the game but her body gave away as she lost her balance. That fall prompted Williams to tearfully put an end to the match and to her campaign at the 2021 Championships.

Wimbledon: Freak injury dashes Serena Williams' hopes

Sasnovich, who had a brief on-court interview after the result, wished her opponent a speedy recovery. “It was so nice atmosphere here. It was so nice for me to play for the first time on Centre Court. And of course, I am so sad for Serena. She’s such a great champion. But it sometimes happens in tennis. All the best for her recovery,” the world no. 100 said.

Williams’ retirement came on the heels of Adrian Mannarino’s retirement in the fifth set of his first-round match against Roger Federer. The Frenchman, too, suffered a fall on the grass in the fourth set before deciding to stop play after the first point of the deciding set.

The Swiss, later, reacting to Serena Williams’ Wimbledon withdrawal, said, “This is obviously terrible that it’s back-to-back matches and it hits Serena as well. Oh, my God, I can’t believe it.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3higRM9