Retired hurt at wet Wimbledon

Roger Federer was not even halfway through his post-match press conference when a journalist informed him about Serena Williams being forced to retire injured after slipping during her first-round match at Wimbledon.

“C’mon,” a stunned Federer, raising both his eyebrows, said on Tuesday. “…This is obviously terrible, and it’s back-to-back matches, and it’s Serena as well. Oh my god, I can’t believe it,” he said.

Minutes before Williams—who played with an already-strapped right thigh—exited the lush green Centre Court in tears after twice slipping in the first set and unable to continue at 3-3, her soon-to-be-40 fellow great had been at the receiving end of a walkover. Federer’s opponent Adrian Mannarino slipped near the baseline at the same end of the same court as Williams late in the fourth set, injuring his knee and calling it quits at the start of the fifth set.

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Two back-to-back mid-match injury withdrawals on Centre Court on the second day of the tournament, coming a day after world No. 1 Novak Djokovic too fell a few times in his tournament opener, was enough to raise questions about the conditions at Wimbledon which is being held after a gap of two years.

Players taking the odd tumble on grass over the years isn’t uncommon at the All England Club, but what has aggravated the situation this year has been the weather conditions. The first two days had frequent showers and overcast skies. And while play on outside courts is halted when it rains, matches on the Centre Court and No. 1 Court carry on because both have retractable roofing. With the roof closed, the conditions inside the courts tend to become more humid, which adds to the dampness of the grass. Williams, Federer, Djokovic all played under cover.

“I do feel it feels a tad more slippery maybe under the roof,” Federer said. “I don’t know if it’s just a gut feeling. You do have to move very, very carefully out there. If you push too hard in the wrong moments, you do go down.”

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After winning his match in four sets against Britain’s Jack Draper on the opening day on Monday, Djokovic said he could not recall “falling this many times on court”. Former champion Andy Murray, who also played on Centre Court on Monday, was quick to join the chorus after Williams’ withdrawal. “Brutal for @serenawilliams but centre court is extremely slippy out there. Not easy to move out there,” he wrote on Twitter. Mannarino and Williams’ opponent Aliaksandra Sasnovich too concurred on the conditions being “slippery”.

After Mannarino and Williams retired, the All England Club issued a statement, saying: “The weather conditions on the opening two days have been the wettest we have experienced in almost a decade, which has required the roof to be closed on Centre Court and No.1 Court for long periods. This is at a time when the grass plant is at its most lush and green, which does result in additional moisture on what is a natural surface.

“With each match that is played, the courts will continue to firm up.”

Federer, the eight-time champion at Wimbledon, too said getting through the first two rounds on the “virgin grass”—as Djokovic described it before the tournament—was the tricky part. “But it’s always been like this… As the tournament progresses, usually (the court) gets harder and easier to move on.”

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