The first two days of Wimbledon have been rainy and soggy, which is bad news for a grass-court tournament. The All-England Club has two courts with roofs (Center Court and Court 1) so those “show court matches” have been happening with few interruptions. The only problem is that it seems like the roofs make the court and air very damp and humid. Which means the biggest-name players – Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Serena Williams – have been playing in really slippery conditions. Djokovic slipped and fell several times on Day 1. Andy’s movement was limited on Day 1 on Center Court as well.
On the second match on Center Court on Tuesday, Federer was being outplayed by a wily Frenchman named Adrian Mannarino. Then Mannario had a bad slip late in the match and he injured his knee to the point where he could not continue, so he retired from the match. Roughly one hour later, the same thing happened on the exact same slippery patch of grass. Only that time, it happened to Serena Williams. At first it was a small slip and Serena looked like she just momentarily lost her footing. But then she limped to her chair, asked for the trainer and she came limping back on court a few minutes later, trying to continue with the match. One more slip and this happened:
It was devastating. Before this happened, she was trying to serve and she just couldn’t push off with her feet at all. She was crying as she tried to move even a little bit, and before this video starts, Serena had already cried out in pain as she began falling. It was brutal to watch. I was also surprised by how quickly the chair umpire (Marija Čičak) was out of the chair to talk to Serena on court. This is only the second time in Serena’s career that she’s “lost” a first round at a Slam.
Minutes after Serena walked off court, there were already conversations happening online and on ESPN about what could be done to mitigate the dampness on court, especially the courts with roofs. Even Andy Murray chimed in about how difficult it was for players to move out there. Ugh, this is all just awful.
Brutal for @serenawilliams but centre court is extremely slippy out there. Not easy to move out there.
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) June 29, 2021
Serena seemed to have slipped. She's limping and currently receiving treatment off court. #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/cMK7esMH4c
— Tennis GIFs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) June 29, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty.
So many comments I read online are suggesting ‘its time.’ Age has caught up,bow out graciously etc. Obviously its her perogative and i feel she wont retire until she has reached a record that no one will break in the next 50 years. I think she is on 23 grand slams.
Are they connecting the men slipping to age and saying they should retire also? Because, even if Serena needs to retire (I don’t follow tennis), slipping and falling in wet grass is not an age related problem nor is it a sign of how well someone plays tennis. Literally anyone can slip on something slippery and twist something the wrong way. I don’t understand why they’d jump to it being an age related problem or a sign that she needs to retire. I’m pretty sure it’s just a sign that no one should be playing on such a wet court that’s caused multiple people to fall.
+1
Those commenters who jump to blaming her age are idiots. And so rude!
She was the sixth seed at Wimbledon. She is an elite player, yet somehow she should retire?
“I don’t understand why they’d jump to it being an age related problem or a sign that she needs to retire.”
1. Misogyny
2. Racism
Those commenters clearly weren’t watching the match before she slipped–she was playing great, and winning, up until she slipped. It was devastating to watch.
Since exactly the same thing happened to a 20-something man a mere hour before, are they suggesting it’s time for him to hang up his racquet as well?
I was watching it with my 4 year old son and it was brutal to watch. We’re absolutely gutted for Serena. Something is obviously not right with the courts and what if more players get injured? It takes awhile to recover but Wimbledon will just keep on trucking as cash is king.
I’m glad I stuck to my guns of not buying tickets even though I got picked in the ballot because with the ongoing pandemic and threat of delta variant, it’s not worth the risk.
It was heart wrenching to see. A few years ago Andy complained when they had to close the roof during a match for this exact reason.
Isn’t it up to the host site to provide a safe, playable court? This isn’t steeplechase where the (human) athletes know they will face uneven terrain, mud, slippery surfaces, and fall risks as a standard at the event.
Holding these matches in conditions that are bound to injure athletes and where the outcome bears no relation to their skill at the sport or athleticism just seems careless and insane to me.
“Isn’t it up to the host site to provide a safe, playable court?” Exactly! This is unacceptable. I was livid when I saw what happened and I don’t understand how this is okay.
Right on….you have to cut so hard playing tennis….good way to blow a knee out. Which might be what the young man playing Federer did.
I completely agree with everything you said. It’s disgraceful that so many athletes are clearly being injured due to unsafe conditions and people are still acting as if Serena is Sophia Petrillo out there. Fix your court!
Wishing Serena a fast and total recovery.
The issue is rain and I don’t think Roland Garros can control the weather.
But can’t they postpone matches? Are alternate dates never built into the tournament? Why not?
And isn’t this Wimbledon?
No they can’t, not at this stage. There are a lot of other machinations that go into running a tournament rather than just the matches. There are advertising deals, contracts with tv stations, player schedules… all sorts of things.
Was so gutted, something is wrong with center court
Ugh, poor Serena.
I hate that this happened to this beautiful powerful player. 💗
AAAAARGH!
I’m so annoyed!! This is a heartbreaking injury for an elite athlete. I’m so sick of people saying she needs to retire.
Professional tennis really seems like a toxic sport to participate in
That’s so wrenching to see. And of course people will leap to use a totally-understandable slip on wet grass to start braying for her complete retirement, calling her finished, whatever. They’re always looking for ways to yank her down, whether it’s her outfits, or the copious drug testing she magically comes up for when no one else does, or something like this slip, that’s really the fault of the hosts for not maintaining safe courts for the athletes.
This woman cannot catch her breath with those people.
I once badly sprained my foot and took six weeks to heal just slipping on my stairs, so for the kind of forceful movements they’re making, you can see how they can hurt themselves very easily in bad conditions. What a shame to have to bow out that early after all of that training. Has to be devastating.