BEVERLY HILLS, February 10, (THEWILL) – Another giant fell this morning in the 2021 Australian Open, with an injury-hampered Venus Williams failing to match up to the Italian Sara Errani.
The older of the Williams’ sisters refused to retire after suffering a bad injury to her ankle in her second-round match against Sara Errani, battling through the pain to lose 6-1 6-0.
The 40-year-old American screamed in anguish before eventually hobbling over to her chair to receive medical attention after she twisted her right ankle while trailing 1-5 in the opening set. The seven-time Grand Slam winner, and twice finalist Down Under, started the match with a heavily-taped left knee and was left in agony after the injury.
Her Italian opponent showed concern about the situation and berated the umpire for being slow to act after Venus sustained the injury. Errani asked: “Can somebody help?”
On Tuesday, two-time Australian Open champion, Victoria Azarenka, needed medical attention after she found it difficult to breathe midway into her first-round match against 26-year-old American Jessica Pegula. She later returned court-side after she was certified okay to play on but lost 7-5 6-4.
Errani, in her post-match press conference, when asked about the circumstances, instantly mouthed her frustration: “I didn’t understand what she had in the beginning. I was saying to the chair umpire that, ‘Could anybody go to her?’ because I couldn’t. I was telling him to go, please go to her.
“I couldn’t understand really.”
From the moment of her unfortunate ankle twist, Venus did not win another game in the match. Yet, she battled through courageously nonetheless and was applauded off the court after the match had gone to Errani.
The Italian goes into the third round where she will now contend against Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei, who beat 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu 6-3 6-2.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
