Serena Williams always has marched to the beat of a different drummer. It has allowed her to become one of the most charismatic tennis champions of all time. But on Tuesday, it created one of the most bizarre scenes in Wimbledon history - especially by a former champion.
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For some reason, a clearly disoriented Williams took to the court at Wimbledon for a doubles match Tuesday with partner Venus Williams against Kristina Barrois and Stefanie Voegele. She couldn't hit a ball over the net; she couldn't even bounce a ball with her racket or her hand but started the match anyway.
Video that has gone viral shows Williams' strange state, which included four double-faults on her serve. Finally, she and Venus forfeited the match.
From there, information was scarce, leading to the big question: Was suffering from a physical ailment or emotional distress?
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Wimbledon officials scrambled to say Serena suffered from a "viral infection. Serena released a statement, saying, "I am heartbroken I'm not able to continue in the tournament. 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," as quoted in USA TODAY Sports.
Serena's coach and speculated former boyfriend Patrick Mouratoglou told reporters that he had not talked to her in two days, according to ESPNW. Some are speculating that a breakup - at least, romantically - between the two also has Serena distressed. If they did have a relationship only to break up, why on earth would Serena retain Moratoglou as her coach?
And as her coach, doesn't Mouratoglou have a responsibility of making sure she is ready to compete?
Tennis champion Martina Navratilova called the whole incident "distressing" to ESPNW
"It's the most inexplicable thing of all that she was clearly in no state to play a match and that with all the people around her, that they didn't stop her from getting on the court," Navratilova said. "I've never seen anything like it and hopefully never will again. Everybody was put in such a difficult position, including the WTA. It's not right. It defies logic on so many fronts. The coach said he hadn't seen her for two days. He didn't know anything. How can you be a coach and not know anything? That's wrong. And Venus was just kind of there. You don't know what's going on, but virus was not it, that much is clear."
Venus issued a statement that also was bizarre, considering the fact that she did not try to stop Serena from trying to play.
"Unfortunately Serena has been feeling unwell for the past few days and she just couldn't play to her potential today," she said, according to USA TODAY Sports. I'm really proud of her for trying because we just love playing doubles together. We are looking forward to coming back to Wimbledon next year."
How Venus could be really proud of that bizarre scene is ridiculous. Watching the chair umpire having to come down to talk to Serena during the match with Venus standing right there was just another part of the chaos that unfolded.
ESPNW reported that those close to Serena said she simply was having a hard time dealing with her third-round loss to Alize Cornet. According to the Daily Mail, Serena said, "I suck right now at doubles I told Venus I am so bad that I don't even want to play."
That made Navratilova go off again.
"[But] why would it take two days?" she said. "Either you go home or default. I would expect a default before you play. But once you step onto the court, you're a professional tennis player; you've got to be ready to play. No matter what is ailing you or no matter if you did anything to get you in that state or you're sick or whatever, you don't step on the court. You don't step on the court no matter what."
In another bizarre attempt to show that she was sick, and perhaps, not faking, Williams posted a photo of herself bundled up with a blanket and computer.
Because of the furor Williams' behavior caused on tennis' biggest stage, the WTA now would be remiss not to step in and ask Serena to take a drug test or a psychological test to ensure that a recurrence does not take place.
Do you think the WTA needs to take some kind of action in regards to Serena Williams' bizarre behavior and her camp's inexplicable neglect in letting her take the court? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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