In a bizarre scene at Wimbledon,
Serena Williams could barely keep a ball in the court in a first round doubles
match shortly before she and Venus Williams retired on Tuesday.
The latest report from the referee's
office is that Williams is suffering from a viral illness.
The WTA is expected to release a
statement shortly and USA TODAY Sports confirmed with Venus that Serena was OK
this morning, has been "sad" and has not seen her coach, Patrick
Mouratoglu, in two days.
According to the Associated Press,
the start of Tuesday's doubles match was delayed about 10 minutes while Serena
was examined by medical staff and her blood pressure was checked.
No. 1 Serena, who lost in the third
round on Saturday to Alize Cornet of France, looked unsteady in the warm-up for
a first-round match against Kristina Barrois and Stefanie Voegle on Court 1.
A doctor was called on court, and
Serena appeared to be in tears. She buried her hands in her face for several
minutes before taking the court to play.
With Serena serving in the third
game, she looked faint and could sometimes barely grip the ball.
All four of her serves were double
faults. None registered on the radar gun.
After a visit from the umpire, Kader
Nouni, and consulting with her sister, the eighth-seeded Williams sisters
retired trailing 3-0.
The Williams sisters have
won five Wimbledon doubles titles, the last in 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment