adminThe five-times champion Serena Williams was forced to retire from her women’s doubles match at Wimbledon yesterday because of apparent illness that left her disorientated on court.The world No 1 looked groggy and was barely able to hit the ball, serving four double faults in a row before finally deciding to quit.
It took the intervention of the umpire, Kader Nouni, to convince the American that it was not worth her carrying on in a second-round match that had already been delayed by 15 minutes after the warm-up, as a tearful Williams consulted doctors.
At one stage, the doctor told her: “If you can’t see the ball, you shouldn’t play”, but Williams, perhaps not wanting to let her sister, Venus, down, tried to play on.
Having been unable to even catch the ball thrown from the ball girls in the warm-up, the 32-year-old barely made contact when she served.
The crowd tried to encourage her but at 2-0, 40-0 down to Kristina Barrois of Germany and Stefanie Vögele of Switzerland, Nouni came down from his chair to suggest to the younger Williams sister that she ought to stop.
Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said he had no idea what was wrong, adding that he had not seen her in the two days since her shock defeat by Alizé Cornet of France in the third round of the singles event. — Telegraph
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu