By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer
WIMBLEDON, England — As Venus Williams entered Centre Court for her 24th Wimbledon appearance at age 43, greeted by a standing ovation, she held a green exercise band overhead with both hands and stretched it while striding to her sideline seat.
Once her first-round match against Elina Svitolina began, Williams played like a throwback version of herself. Those big serves. Those crisp strokes. Quickly, she was a point from a 3-0 lead on Monday.
And then, moving forward to attempt a volley, Williams slipped on the green grass. Her right foot gave way. She collapsed to the ground. She shrieked and clutched at her right knee, which already was covered by a beige sleeve. Williams twice was treated by a trainer – including getting that knee taped up during a medical timeout after the first set – and although the American kept playing, she could not manage to overcome 2019 Wimbledon semifinalist Svitolina in a 6-4, 6-3 defeat.
“I’m not sure what I’ve done. I’m going to have to investigate it tomorrow. It’s late today. But it was quite painful,” Williams said. “Grass is inherently going to be slippery; you’re going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me. I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it. And then I got killed by the grass.”
Williams, a former No. 1 now ranked outside the Top 500 after a series of injuries that have limited her to 22 matches since the start of 2021, was the oldest player in this year’s field and the fourth-oldest to compete in the main draw at Wimbledon.
“Right now, I’m kind of in shock. I can’t believe this happened. It’s bizarre. I’m still processing it at the moment,” Williams said at her news conference, more than an hour after the match ended. “What makes this one hard to process is that I’ve had so many injuries. … This is not what I want for myself.”
Svitolina was only 2 when Williams made her Wimbledon debut in 1997 and just 5 when Williams won the event for the first time in 2000.
“It’s always a pleasure to play against Venus,” Svitolina said, calling her opponent a “big legend.”
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek, who won her opening match against Zhu Lin, 6-1, 6-3, used that same term – “legend” – to describe Williams.
“I admire (how) she still finds motivation to play. I think it’s amazing. She really must love the game, like truly,” said Swiatek, who has won four major titles but is yet to get past the fourth round at the All England Club.
Something of a surprise arrived at Court No. 1 just before darkness arrived on Monday, when Coco Gauff – who burst onto the scene at age 15 by beating Williams in the opening round at Wimbledon – was eliminated by Sofia Kenin, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, in a highlight-reel matchup between two Americans.
While Kenin did win the 2020 Australian Open, even knocking off Gauff along the way, she had exited in the first round at each of her past three majors, is ranked just 128th and needed to go through qualifying rounds to get into the main draw at Wimbledon. Gauff, meanwhile, was seeded No. 7 and established herself as a consistent Week 2 presence at Slams, including a run to the French Open final last year.
Williams’ four other titles at the All England Club arrived in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008, too, along with a pair of U.S. Open trophies in singles – plus 14 in women’s doubles with her younger sister, Serena, who retired after last season.
The older Williams also was the runner-up at Wimbledon four times, most recently during a resurgent 2017, a season in which she reached a total of two finals and another semifinal at majors. Since then? Williams – who announced her diagnosis with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain, in 2011 – has lost in the first round at 10 of her most recent 15 Grand Slam events.
There were some vintage moments on Monday, including serves at up to 117 mph and big cuts on forehands and two-handed backhands that either produced clean winners or led to forced errors by Svitolina.
There also were 33 unforced errors, 18 more than Svitolina. Williams’ total in that category included eight double faults.
The tumble that brought a hush over the stadium came after merely 12 minutes of play and, as she stayed down on the grass, getting chalk on her left leg, it appeared as if she might need to stop. The chair umpire rushed over to check on Williams. So did Svitolina, carrying a white towel to tuck under Williams’ head.
“I’m a competitor. That’s what I do for a living. I did what I could today,” Williams said later. “I’ve played through a lot of matches and won a lot of matches injured. Its kind of a specialty of mine. I just never figured it out today.”
Still, the crowd certainly was appreciative of the persistence and effort Williams displayed on Monday, rising to salute her and shower her with applause when she left the court with a quick wave and a slight hitch in her step.
During the match, there were too many cries of “Go, Venus!” or “You can do it!” to count. Truth is, both players are sympathetic figures, and Svitolina, who is 28, heard her own support from the stands. She is from Ukraine – which has been under attack from Russia for nearly 1½ years – and returned to the tour in April after giving birth in October to the first child for her and her husband, tennis player Gael Monfils.
Svitolina wound up with more aces than Williams, 6-2, and nearly twice as many total winners, 28-16.
“Grass takes a lot out of the legs and you have to bend your legs to get to all these shots,” said Svitolina, who used to be ranked as high as No. 3 but is now No. 76 after the time off and, like Williams, received a wild-card invitation from the All England Club. “Venus plays really quick and I had to really work hard for today’s win.”
Kenin used to be the up-and-coming American, the one who was a Grand Slam champion at age 21, the one who beat a teenage Gauff on the way to that trophy, the one who right afterward broke into the Top 10 in the WTA rankings, then soon made another run to a major final.
After all of that came a series of health issues – a lingering foot injury, a bout with COVID-19, a right ankle problem – and three first-round exits in a row at major tournaments, all of which added up to a slide down the rankings. Coming into Wimbledon, Kenin was ranked 128th, so low she needed to go through three qualifying rounds just to get into the main draw, where she was placed in the bracket against none other than Gauff.
It’s Gauff who is now in the Top 10 at age 19 and seeded No. 7 at the All England Club, who was a Slam runner-up at last year’s French Open, who was a quarterfinalist or better at four of the most recent nine majors. And yet it was Kenin who came out on top in their highlight-filled matchup on a windy, chilly day.
“I know where I was,” Kenin said, “and where I should be.”
She was steadier than Gauff, with far fewer winners but also far fewer unforced errors.
Here’s how Kenin described her mindset: “Don’t get anxious or super excited.”
Kenin also acknowledged afterward that she set out to “pick on her forehand a little bit more,” referring to Gauff’s weaker side.
“I didn’t really put too much pressure on her,” Gauff said. “I felt like she could make a ball on the court (and) didn’t have to be as good – and I wouldn’t do much with it. That’s what happened.”
There were highlights galore, including one sequence each in which one player fell down to the grass, got herself back up and ended up taking the point.
“With three wins under her belt from ‘qualies,’ I knew she was going to be playing with confidence,” Gauff said when asked about whether Kenin could return to the heights she once reached. “I mean, it’s always possible for somebody to get back to that level. She’s still on the younger end of her career. I think with how she played today, it shouldn’t be too long.”
It was at Wimbledon in 2019 that Gauff made her breakthrough and began to establish herself as a household name at age 15.
She became the youngest player to qualify at the All England Club, then beat seven-time major champion Venus Williams in the first round en route to getting all the way to the fourth round before losing to eventual title winner Simona Halep.
Still not yet 20, Gauff is considered one of the rising stars of women’s tennis. That label was applied to Kenin just three years ago.
“She had nothing to lose today. Obviously, she won a Grand Slam, but she’s in a tough spot in her career,” Gauff said. “So I knew coming in she would play with a lot of motivation. It was all about how I would play today and how I would take care of my end of the court. I did in certain moments, but obviously not enough.”
DJOKOVIC HELPS DRY COURT AFTER RAIN DELAY
Anxious to get on with the match, Novak Djokovic literally took matters into his own hands on the wet Wimbledon grass by using his towel and some elbow grease to help dry the surface.
Djokovic, who has won the Wimbledon title seven times, was playing in the opening match of this year’s tournament on Centre Court – the traditional spot for the defending men’s champion at the All England Club.
But as it so often does in southwest London, it started raining just as Djokovic won the first set, 6-3. That led organizers to stop play and close the roof over the stadium.
When Djokovic and Argentine opponent Pedro Cachin returned after the tarp was removed, the ground was still slick. That’s when Djokovic jumped into action.
“I normally come out with rackets, not with towels,” said the 36-year-old Serb, seeded No. 2 at the tournament. “But it was fun to do something different, a little bit of a strange feeling but hopefully you guys liked it.”
Djokovic bent down with his white towel and tried to dry some areas that seemed particularly soaked. He also waved the towel over the grass like a fan.
At one point, Djokovic looked up to his box and joked: “Yes, blow, blow. Blow the air. We need everybody’s help.”
“It was definitely frustrating, of course, for all the crowd,” Djokovic said later. “For us players, we both wanted to play but the conditions were not great, obviously still slippery.”
Eventually, a worker with a leaf blower emerged. The crowd cheered, and so did Djokovic. Then more workers made their way onto the hallowed lawn on Centre Court, walking up and down with the hand-held air blowers.
“It was strange,” Cachin said. “We saw in the U.S. Open with the machines, but never I saw like here.”
The delay lasted nearly 1½ hours. By the time play restarted, the roof – installed over Centre Court in 2009 – had been reopened.
“In this instance, Centre Court took longer to dry than anticipated,” the All England Club said in a statement. “Furthermore, given indications that the rain was due to stop imminently, the decision was taken to resume play with the roof open.
“The players were regularly updated during this time.”
Djokovic ended up winning, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4). If he wins six more matches over the next two weeks, he will tie Roger Federer with a men’s record eight Wimbledon titles and win a 24th Grand Slam singles title.
Also Monday, American Michael Mmoh upset 11th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4, in a four-hour clash to claim a surprise win and reach the second round.
Mmoh, who made headlines earlier this year by beating Alexander Zverev to reach the Australian Open third round, is ranked 119 in the world.
Fourth-seeded Casper Ruud found his groove on grass after a wobble and battled past French qualifier Laurent Lokoli, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
AP Sports Writers Chris LeHourites and Ken Maguire contributed to this story.