Maria Sharapova leads attack on 'dangerous' Wimbledon courts
By mid-afternoon on the third day of the tournament, the polite chatter and manicured lawns of the All England Club had become more of a field hospital full of anguished cries as players dropped like nine pins. Seven athletes, from the feted conqueror of Rafael Nadal, Steve Darcis, to the fancied Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the women's second seed, Victoria Azarenka, were forced to withdraw and several others suffered injuries.Caroline Wozniacki , the ninth seed and former world No1, crashed out in straight sets to Petra Cetkovska after falling and twisting her ankle on Court Two.
Women's third seed Sharapova, who fell three times on the same spot on the baseline as Wozniacki, could be seen mouthing: "How many more times?" The broadcast microphones also picked up the former champion saying: "This court is dangerous." Afterwards she refused to use the quality of the surface as an excuse but asked about her on-court remarks, she said: "After I buckled my knee three times, that's obviously my first reaction."
After her right leg gave way for a third time she complained to a line judge. Later in the third set she had extensive treatment on a hip injury and afterwards suggested players should be allowed to practise on the show courts to get used to the surface. Larcher de Brito also hit out at the court as "really slippery and quite dangerous" after defeating Sharapova. "There is a lot of dead grass at the top end that made it slippery. I tried to be careful and take small steps rather than trying to stop right away. It's a tough court to play on."
The spate of injuries exacerbated concern over the state of the courts and speculation whether rule changes and the intensive schedule of the modern tour had contributed. One of those affected, Marin Cilic, labelled it "a very black day". Tsonga, the French sixth seed who came into Wimbledon on good form, was troubled by a knee injury that severely impeded his movement against Ernests Gulbis and he retired two sets to one down. The other players forced to withdraw on Wednesday were the American John Isner, the former quarter-finalist Radek Stepanek and Yaroslava Shvedova.
Although All England Club officials insisted there was nothing in their preparation of the courts that could have led to the freakish spate of withdrawals, that did not stop the players speculating. Azarenka, the Belarusian second seed, was due to play Flavia Pennetta in the second round on Centre Court but was forced to pull out with a knee injury that she suffered in a heavy fall during her opening match on Monday.
"The court was not in a very good condition that day. I mean, my opponent fell twice, I fell badly, there were some other people who fell after," she said. "So I don't know if it's the court or the weather. I can't figure it out. It would be great if the club or somebody who takes care of the court just would examine or try to find an issue so that wouldn't happen."
Full version of the guardian.co.uk
