Williams started her first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich aggressively, but she slipped on the grass court and later fell after injuring her right hamstring.
WIMBLEDON, England — Serena Williams’s 20th Wimbledon ended shortly after it began. She retired 34 minutes into the first set of her first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Tuesday night because of a right hamstring injury.
“I was heartbroken to have to withdraw today after injuring my right leg,” Williams wrote in a post on Instagram, adding: “Feeling the extraordinary warmth and support of the crowd today when I walked on — and off — the court meant the world to me.”
It was poignant to see Williams, one of the great champions in any sport, in pain and in tears on the famous patch of grass where she has often triumphed through the years. She has won seven Wimbledon singles titles, six women’s doubles titles and one mixed doubles title on Centre Court.
Tuesday brought her earliest exit in singles at the All England Club. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said in a text message that the injury was to the “top of the hamstring.”
Williams started her match against Sasnovich with her right thigh taped, just as it was during the French Open early this month in Paris.
But Williams still began in impressive fashion Tuesday, ripping second-serve returns with ruthless precision to take a 3-1 lead under the closed roof on Centre Court.
But while serving in the next game at 15-15, Williams slipped as she changed direction. After losing the point, she stopped for several seconds, staring down at the grass. She went on to lose her serve and then walked gingerly to her chair, where she was examined by a trainer. Williams left the court for treatment and returned several minutes later, limping slightly. She resumed play, but struggled to move as Sasnovich held serve to make the score 3-3. Williams, in obvious distress, began crying at the baseline as she prepared to start her next service game.
Unable to push off, she missed her first serve, then put a low-velocity second serve in play and slapped a backhand winner as the crowd roared to encourage her. But on the following point, Williams hit a forehand awkwardly into the net. The next point turned out to be the final one. She tried to shift direction during a baseline rally and cried out in pain as she fell forward onto the grass.
Coco Gauff, the rising 17-year-old American, was watching on television in the Wimbledon gym. She said she had to turn away from the screen.
“It was hard for me to watch that,” Gauff said. “I’m a big fan of her, even though I’m a competitor now. But she’s the reason why I started to play tennis. It’s hard to watch any player get injured, but especially her.”
The chair umpire, Marija Cicak, climbed down from her post and was soon by Williams’s side. They walked toward the net together, where Williams retired and shook the 100th-ranked Sasnovich’s hand.
It was the second consecutive retirement on Centre Court. In the preceding match, Adrian Mannarino of France stopped play early in the fifth set against Roger Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon singles champion.
“This is obviously terrible that it’s back-to-back matches, and it hits Serena as well,” Federer said when informed of Williams’s retirement. “I can’t believe it.”
After gathering her belongings, Williams limped off Centre Court, her accreditation badge dangling from her hand, and performed one of her traditional pirouettes. But after a final wave to the crowd, she stumbled again as she reached the passageway behind the most famous court in tennis, where she last won the singles title in 2016. Though she stayed on her feet, she needed help to walk into the clubhouse.
Williams, 39, has been chasing a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title since returning to the tour in 2018 after the birth of her daughter, Olympia. Seeded sixth at Wimbledon, she was still considered a favorite for the title by many bookmakers, along with the world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty.
“It’s not like she lost a match,” said Tracy Austin, a former No. 1. “She was winning and then one slip and minutes later she’s out of the tournament. Everyone knows her opportunities are diminishing. Maybe we’re all focusing too much on the record instead of celebrating what she has accomplished.”
This was only the second first-round exit from a Grand Slam singles tournament in Williams’s long career. She was beaten in the first round of the French Open in 2012 by Virginie Razzano of France.
“It’s very sad for me honestly, when your opponent feels bad,” said Sasnovich, a former top-30 player from Belarus who had never faced Williams before. “She’s a great champion, and it’s a sad story.”
Williams, who said earlier this week that she would not play at the Tokyo Olympics, has had increasing trouble with injuries since her comeback. She withdrew during the French Open in 2018 and 2020. At the 2019 Australian Open, she injured her left ankle during her quarterfinal loss to Karolina Pliskova but completed the match.
This time, after waiting two years to return to Wimbledon because of the pandemic-related cancellation in 2020, she could not finish, and her injury raised questions about the condition of the grass. Slips and tumbles are not uncommon in the opening days of the tournament, as players navigate the fresh grass behind the baselines before it gets worn.
“Those first two matches are always extremely difficult, but it’s always been like this,” said Federer, who is playing in his 22nd Wimbledon. “I feel for a lot of players. It’s super key to get through those first two rounds, because the grass is more slippery. It’s more soft. As the tournament progresses, usually it gets harder and easier to move on.”
Sasnovich said she had also struggled to stay on her feet. “When she did an angle, I couldn’t run because it was so slippery,” she said of Williams.
Experience, often an advantage on grass, was not enough to keep champions from tumbling in the first round. Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 men’s player and a five-time Wimbledon champion, fell twice in his victory over Jack Draper on Monday. Mannarino, a French veteran who turned 33 on Tuesday, was leading Federer by two sets to one. But Mannarino slipped as he changed direction with Federer serving while leading by 4-2 in the fourth set. Mannarino landed awkwardly, his left leg extending and his right knee twisting. He said he heard “a crack” in his knee and remained on his back on the grass for more than a minute before limping to his chair to be examined by tournament medical officials.
After Federer closed out the fourth set at 6-2, Mannarino retired following the opening point of the fifth set, and Federer, 39, advanced to the second round. “Warming up before the match, the court seemed quite slippery, and I didn’t feel comfortable,” Mannarino said. “The weather was rather humid. I don’t know if there were problems with the court. I’m not a specialist. I can only talk about my sensations.”
Federer said that Gerry Armstrong, the tournament referee, had asked him after the match for his opinion on the court’s condition.
“I said, ‘I think the court plays normally as we know it,’” Federer said. “I do feel it feels a tad more slippery maybe under the roof. 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 go down. I do feel it’s drier during the day. With the wind and all that stuff, it takes the moisture out of the grass.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Williams’s older sister Venus, 41, defeated Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. It was the first victory at Wimbledon for Venus Williams since 2018.
It remains to be seen how many more moments Serena Williams will have on Centre Court. She, like Federer, is approaching her 40th birthday, but she has a role model in her own family who has demonstrated that 40 is not an impassable barrier in tennis.
Ben Rothenberg contributed reporting.
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