Injury, court conditions have players crying foul

the top 250 in singles and doubles in 2014, when she missed six months after another hip operation.

“I’m just, like, really hurt for her,” Safarova said.

There was no indication that the condition of the grass on the court had anything to do with Mattek-Sands’ fall, but playing surfaces around the All England Club were a source of complaints by others Thursday. In particular, the areas near many baselines are brown and worn, with little or no grass in spots — looking the way

Wimbledon’s courts usually do by late in Week 2, not as soon as Day 4 — something players said they were told was a result of unusual heat and lack of rain in recent weeks.

“The patch near the baseline is eaten up and the dirt underneath is like ice. Look around, people are going down left and right,” said 46th-ranked Alison Riske of the U.S., whose 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over 12th-seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France at Court 18 was one of a handful of upsets in the women’s draw, including No. 3 Karolina Pliskova’s three-set loss to Magdalena Rybarikova.

“I was worried about, maybe, our safety, to be honest,” Riske said. “The court was pretty slippery.”

Both she and Mladenovic complained to the chair umpire before play started, and again after each took a tumble in the first two games.

“I did feel strongly about it, but I knew in my mind: Where else are they going to put us and is it going to be better? Kiki and I had a conversation,” Riske said, referring to Mladenovic by her nickname. “And I said, ‘Look, Kiki. Are the other courts going to be any different?’ And obviously, they’re not.”

Mladenovic said she twisted her ankle during the warmup period and said she’ll have an MRI on her right knee, which turned awkwardly in the second game.

“There’s no grass. I don’t know how to describe it,” said Mladenovic, who held a bag of ice on her swollen knee. “It’s not even clay. It’s not flat. I mean, I don’t know.”