Thursday was a day where tennis suddenly didn’t matter.
The heartbreaking scenes on Court No. 17 at Wimbledon where Bethanie Mattek-Sands fell and suffered a horror knee injury overshadowed everything else that happened and left us all shocked and struggling to focus.
The sound of Mattek-Sands’ screams were echoing in our minds all night.
Her opponent Sorana Cirstea was shook-up and distraught when she spoke to us in a press conference. The Cirstea, who is a friend of Mattek-Sands’, recounted the whole experience to us, explaining how the American went into a state of shock as she lay on the ground in pain.
“She went into shock. She kept saying, ‘Sorana help me, Sorana help me, Sorana help me’.
“I said, ‘I’m here, I’m here, I’m here’.
“I think was tough because she was stuck on this, ‘Sorana, help me, Sorana, help me’.
“I said, ‘I am here, you are strong, you can do this’.
“I was trying, but of course I felt useless. In this kind of moment when she was screaming so loud, you watch the knee, it was a very uncomfortable moment.”
Asked about how she was feeling, the Romanian added: “It’s not about me. It should be at this point zero about me, it should just be about her. She’s the one suffering, in hospital right now.”
Mattek-Sands’ doubles partner Lucie Safarova was watching the match on a TV screen when the incident happened and rushed to the court to go see her friend. Just before Mattek-Sands fell, Safarova’s second round was called for a court change and she was heading to the locker room to get ready for her match.
After seeing her partner in serious pain like that, Safarova had to go play her own match in the state of mind she was in, and ended up losing to Shelby Rogers in three sets after being up by a set and a break.
Speaking to the press afterwards, Safarova’s voice was barely audible, and her eyes were red from crying. Almost whispering she said: “It’s a shocking few hours obviously. I mean, it’s just terrible what happened. Obviously I’m very sad for her. Doesn’t matter about whatever goals we had. It’s just about her being healthy.
“I know what she has been through with the injuries. Everything was going so well for her. We’ve been going, like, we had amazing run. I’m just, like, really hurt for her that she’s hurt again like that.”
Mattek-Sands and Safarova had won the last three consecutive doubles Grand Slams and they were going for four in a row. But at times like these, tennis takes a backseat and even talking about a match is insignificant.
It was brutal for Safarova to have to go step on a match court after witnessing the scenes on Court No. 17 and it seems her defeat was the last thing on her mind.
“Shelby is also her good friend. It was not nice situation for any of us. Obviously it’s been on my mind. I wasn’t playing the greatest. But, yeah, it is what it is,” said Safarova of her second round with Rogers.
