Serena Williams, one of the best women tennis players of her era, suffered from an illness causing her and Venus Williams refusing to continue with their Wimbledon Match on Tuesday.
Serena was identified to be too sick as a virus has made damage that caused her creating four double faults due to her poor hand-eye coordination.
Officials of the said match were aware of this prior to the game commencing. During the warm-ups, she had trouble hitting the ball and oftentimes catching the ball thrown at her. Afterwards, doctors approached her to check on her blood pressure, and Barrois asked the top-listed player if she thinks she can continue.
She tried not to forfeit against Stephanie Voegele and Kristina Barrois; so the Williams sisters claimed that they'll play after Serena sitting down for 10 minutes.
Looking at the match, Serena was obviously having a hard time. Venus started off on the serving area, in spite of the good balls she has hit and garnered several points, Voegele and Barrois managed rise winning the opening game and the next (2-0).
Meanwhile, Serena was next to the service area, she double-fainted quadruple of times - hitting on the racquet frame and on the net. At the first couple of faults, she was given the chance to continue; as per on the third, the chair umpire stood up asking if she could continue. Consequently, she tried to serve another ball but she failed. She sat on the bench, held hands with Venus, and decided to withdraw from the match.
"Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, Miss Williams has to retire," declared by Noouni as quoted by New York Times.
After an hour and a half from the event, both Williams were escorted by Patrick Mouratoglou, who is their coach, to their transportation van. In addition, Serena released her first statement after three hours on WTA (as quoted by NYT).
"I am heartbroken I'm not able to continue in the tournament," it began. "I thought I could rally this morning, because I really wanted to compete, but this bug just got the best of me. I want to thank my sister, Kristina, Stefanie, and our teams for their support. We were all looking forward to a great match."
"From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of the fans for their cheers and understanding. I look forward to returning to Wimbledon next year."
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