Veteran Williams in first-round fall: ‘I got killed by the grass’
As Venus Williams entered Centre Court for her 24th Wimbledon appearance aged 43, greeted by a standing ovation, she held a green exercise band overhead with both hands and stretched it while striding to her sideline seat.
Once her first-round match against Elina Svitolina began, Williams played like a throwback version of herself. Those big serves. Those crisp strokes. Quickly, she was a point from a 3-0 lead yesterday.
And then, moving forward to attempt a volley, Williams slipped on the green grass. Her right foot gave way. She collapsed to the ground. She shrieked and clutched at her right knee, which already was covered by a beige sleeve. Williams twice was treated by a trainer — including getting that knee taped up during a medical timeout after the first set — and although the American kept playing, she could not overcome 2019 Wimbledon semifinalist Svitolina in a 6-4, 6-3 defeat.
“I’m not sure what I’ve done. It was quite painful,” Williams said. “Grass is inherently going to be slippery; you’re going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me. I started the match perfectly. I was killing it. And then I got killed by the grass.”
A former No 1 now ranked outside the top 500 after injuries limited her to 22 matches since the start of 2021, Williams was the oldest player in this year’s field and the fourth-oldest to compete in Wimbledon’s main draw.
“I’m kind of in shock. I can’t believe this happened. It’s bizarre. I’m still processing it at the moment,” said Williams an hour after the match ended. “What makes this one hard to process is that I’ve had so many injuries . . . . This is not what I want for myself.”
During the match, there were too many cries of “Go, Venus!” or “You can do it!” to count.
Truth is, both players are sympathetic figures, and Svitolina, who is 28, heard her own support from the stands. She is from Ukraine — which has been under attack from Russia for nearly 18 months — and returned to the tour in April after giving birth in October to the first child for her and her husband, tennis player Gael Monfils.
Svitolina was only 2 when Williams made her Wimbledon debut in 1997 and just 5 when Williams first won the event in 2000.
“It’s always a pleasure to play against Venus,” Svitolina said, calling her opponent a “big legend”.
No 1-ranked Iga Swiatek, who won her opening match 6-1, 6-3 against Zhu Lin, used that same term — “legend” — to describe Williams.
“I admire [how] she still finds motivation to play. It’s amazing. She really must love the game, like truly,” said Swiatek, who has won four major titles but is yet to get past the fourth round at the All England Club.
Something of a surprise arrived at No 1 Court just before darkness arrived yesterday, when Coco Gauff — who burst on to the scene aged 15 by beating Williams in the opening round at Wimbledon — was eliminated by Sofia Kenin 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in a highlight-reel match-up between two Americans.
While Kenin won the 2020 Australian Open, even knocking off Gauff along the way, she had exited in the first round of her past three majors, is ranked just 128th and needed to go through qualifying rounds to get into the main draw at Wimbledon.
Gauff was seeded No 7 and established herself as a consistent week two presence at Slams, including a run to the French Open final last year.