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 should be done and what could be done to mitigate or manage 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.
