French 12th seed Kristina Mladenovic has brushed aside her second round defeat at Wimbledon, saying she couldn’t care less about it and was just happy she had not been injured.
Mladenovic was beaten 2-6 6-4 6-4 by unheralded American Alison Riske, but insisted her main concern had been getting off Court 18 in one piece on a dramatic day that saw Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffer a horrific injury.
“Honestly, the feeling is that I couldn’t care less if I lost the match today, I just want to be healthy,” Mladenovic said.
“I’m just so blessed and happy that I am not injured today, because we saw worse today.”
Her comments came just two hours after American Mattek-Sands had been carried off a different court on a stretcher, screaming in pain with a serious knee injury.
Mladenovic said she and Riske had both asked to not play on the court after the first two games.
“It’s quite unique with your opponent, after two games, you both agree on stopping playing in a slam,” she said.
“You asking the referee to tell you what’s the rule if both players don’t want to keep on playing. And the answer is that they just can’t do anything, unfortunately, and you have to keep on playing.
“I think you can all pretty much see. First of all, I don’t know, the colour of the court, the fact that there’s no more grass, the fact that the baseline where we are running, it’s very slippery.
“There’s no grass. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s not even clay. It’s not flat. I mean, I don’t know.
“There was a huge hole on the sides where the referee came to actually take pictures of it. So it was not even flat.
“I realised that because at the warm-up I twisted my ankle a little bit.
“You have to run light and be careful, not to push or press too much which is strange to play on.
“I’m just honestly very happy and blessed that I didn’t injure myself that much.”
Mattek-Sands’s opponent Sorana Cirstea said Court 17 had been a little slippery, but that it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“We all know grass, it’s quite dangerous sometimes,” she told reporters.
However Cirstea was critical of the time it took officials to get Mattek-Sands medical help.
Cirstea said she knew immediately it was a serious injury. “I’m not a doctor but you could see that her kneecap was in a very weird position,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this, probably except in the movies. And, yeah, I panicked a little bit, as well.”
Cirstea said she was surprised that it seemed to take so long for anyone to react to the injury.
“I think everyone froze. No one was having any reaction,” she said. “I called for help, but no one was coming.
“I think for a long time it was me, her husband and my physio. My physio jumped and he was there. I was trying but, of course, I felt useless. When she was screaming so loud, it was a very uncomfortable moment. I felt a little bit useless. I wish I could have done more.
“It felt, like, so long. I don’t know, there are sports where you see something’s happening, you see straightaway the help. Like I know football, boxing, all the others, it’s straightaway.
“It took a while. So, of course, you wonder what would have happened if it was a heart issue or something like this.”
“I think someone has to take the video and actually time and see how long it took for people to get there. Because for me, I think she was too long on the ground. I mean, I was there for 10, 15 minutes, then I left and the stretcher was not there yet.”
The All England Club responded by tweeting: “The first response to Court 17 was within 1 minute, by a qualified ambulance technician.
“The player was kept on court while pain relief was given. She was then transferred directly to an ambulance and taken under emergency conditions to a hospital.”
Mattek-Sands, who suffered a serious ligament injury to the same knee four years ago, has won five grand slam doubles titles with Czech Lucie Safarova, who was crying courtside during the incident, and if she had won at Wimbledon would have held all four at the same time.
7Sport
