Venus Williams said she was “killed by the grass” after a horrific tumble during her 6-4, 6-3 loss to Elina Svitolina in the first round at Wimbledon on Monday.
The American got off to an explosive start against her Ukrainian opponent, who reached the semi-finals in 2019.
However, as Svitolina pulled the score back to 2-1, the 43-year-old tripped on the Centre Court grass and fell to the ground holding her strapped right knee. The trainer was called in after she hobbled back to her chair, but she was still able to carry on.
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Williams started aggressively, looking to hit winners, but she was broken again in the 5th game and fellow wild card Svitolina went on to win the first set 6-4. The American faced a mountain to climb after being broken in the opening game of the second set, which Svitolina repeated for a 4-1 lead.
The 76th-ranked 28-year-old who gave birth to a girl in October dominated the match’s final serve in the eighth game, but Williams, battling hard, broke back to make the score 5-3.
She was unable to take advantage of her momentum, as Svitolina broke again, winning the set 6-3, with the match decided on a video referral.
Williams, who accepted she didn’t know the extent of her injuries, was sanguine after her defeat.”Grass is inherently going to be slippery,” she said. “You’re going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me.” She added, “I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it, then I got killed by the grass. It’s not fun right now. I felt like I was in great form coming into this tournament, and great form in the match. It’s all very shocking at the moment. This is sports.”