‘Sad story’ as Serena slips, withdraws with leg injury
Seven-time Wimbledon champ Serena Williams retired mid-match from a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time. Meanwhile, sister Venus Williams and teen Coco Gauff won, and Roger Federer advanced due to an injury to his opponent.
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND
Serena Williams bit her upper lip. She held her left hand over her mouth and tried to hold back tears while getting ready to serve.
It was the first set of her first-round match Tuesday at Wimbledon, and Williams knew this stay at a tournament where she has won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles was about to end because she injured her left leg when she lost her footing behind a baseline.
Moments later, her legs buckled as she tried to change directions to chase a shot by her opponent, 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus. Williams dropped to her knees, her head down on the grass. She used her racket to help her stand, but only so she could limp to the net to concede —
just the second mid-match retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since
1998.
“She’s a great champion,” Sasnovich said, “and it’s [a] sad story.”
Roger Federer surely articulated a common sentiment when told by a reporter what happened to Williams.
“Oh, my God,” he said. “I can’t believe it.”
It came on a day that older sister Venus Williams began her recordextending 90th Grand Slam tournament with her 90th career victory at Wimbledon, beating Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Sister Serena was serving while leading 3-1 at Centre Court — where the retractable roof was shut because of rain that forced the postponement of two dozen matches until Wednesday — when her left shoe seemed to lose its traction while she was hitting a forehand.
Williams winced and stepped gingerly between points, clearly troubled. After dropping that game, she asked to visit with a trainer and took a medical timeout.
She tried to continue playing. The crowd tried to offer support and encouragement. Eventually, the 39-year-old American couldn’t continue. The chair umpire climbed down to check on her, and they walked together up to the net; the score was
3-all, 15-30 when Williams stopped.
Williams, who began the match with her right thigh heavily taped, raised her racket with right arm and put her left palm on her chest. Then she waved to the spectators.
Officially, this goes in the books as only the second first-round Grand Slam exit of Williams’ career. The other came at the 2012 French Open, where she was beaten by Virginie Razzano.
“All the best for her,” said Sasnovich, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 for her best Grand Slam result.
Williams’ departure makes a wide-open women’s draw even more so. As it was, defending champion Simona Halep and four-time major champ Naomi Osaka withdrew before the tournament started.
At the forefront of the new wave is Coco Gauff, the 17-year-old from Delray Beach, who advanced to the second round by beating British wild card Francesca Jones 7-5, 6-4.
The last time Gauff played at Wimbledon, in 2019, she was a 15-yearold and ranked outside the Top 300. She beat Venus Williams and two other players before losing to eventual champion Halep in the fourth round.
Williams was hardly the first player to find it difficult to deal with the slick grass over the first two days of main-draw play.
In the match that preceded hers in the main stadium, eight-time Wimbledon champion Federer advanced when his opponent, Adrian Mannarino, hurt his right leg late in the fourth set when he tumbled near the same spot Williams did.
Federer was trailing two sets to one, but ahead 4-2 in the fourth, when Mannarino fell. He tried to continue but dropped eight of nine points when
they resumed and called it quits.
“Obviously,” Federer acknowledged, “he was the better player.”
Serena’s loss was by far, the most significant development Tuesday, whenwinners included reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and No. 1 seed Ash Barty in the women’s bracket, and No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, No. 4 Alexander Zverev and No. 10 Denis Shapovalov in the men’s.
Sebastian Korda — a 20-year-old American whose father, Petr, won the 1998 Australian Open and whose sisters, No. 1-ranked Nelly and No. 13 Jessica, are on the LPGA Tour — made a successful Wimbledon debut, eliminating No. 15 seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5).
Venus Williams accumulated 10 aces by smacking serves at up to 114 mph — not quite like the old days, but not too shabby, either. She drove forehands to corners. She made her way to the net for crisp volleys.
And when it was all over, she celebrated her first Wimbledon match win since 2018 by raising her arms and yelling “Come on!” before reprising her familiar smileand-twirl wave at No. 3 Court.