Ace tennis player and world number one Serena Williams retired from her doubles match with sister Venus Williams against Stefanie Vogele and Kristina Barrois due to a viral illness. It became quite apparent soon after the first point that Serena was not 100 percent fit. The sisters, who have won the Wimbledon doubles title five times before, were not strong contenders this time as age seems to have caught up with them as both were knocked out from the singles event.
During the warm-up session itself, Serena was little adrift and disoriented. The crowd also recognized that there was something wrong when she wasn’t able to even catch the balls thrown by the ball boys. Soon after the warm-up, doctors attended to Serena and checked her blood pressure. She was in tears when the doctors were checking on her. Serena was sitting on the chair for a while as Venus and their opponents waited for her decision.
Serena finally decided to play as the crowd cheered her as she walked on to the court. It was Venus who served first, but their opponents broke her serve and won the first game. They took a 2-0 lead and then it was time for Serena to serve. It was the strangest site in a Wimbledon event as Serena served four double-faults as most of them bounced before the net. After the third double, the chair umpire Kader Nouni came down from his chair to have chat with Serena. Serena tried one more time, but when she served another double fault, Serena walked back to her chair and the sisters decided to retire from the match.
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Even Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou had no idea what was wrong with her. A little while later, she issued a statement saying that she was extremely sorry and thanked the crowd who came to see the match for their support and understanding.