US tennis star Bethanie Mattek-Sands has suffered a painful on-court injury during a singles match, which left her lying on the ground screaming in agony.
Mattek-Sands was in the third and final set of her match against Romanian player Sorana Cirstea when her leg appeared to buckle from underneath her as she moved forward on the court.
Just a devastating scene at Wimbledon as Bethanie Mattek-Sands goes down with an injury. pic.twitter.com/kqY6wQAcbS
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 6, 2017
She was seen to clutch her right knee for a moment before beginning to scream in pain. It’s clear there was confusion from her opponent, staff and the crowd about the severity of the injury.
“Help me! Help me please! I need help please! Fuck!” she can be heard saying on the video.
According to The New York Post, it was nearly 20 minutes before medical staff were able to remove her from the court on a stretcher into a waiting ambulance. At this point, the crowd was beginning to disperse as it was clear the match wasn’t going to proceed.
The Sun reported Mattek-Sands’ comments as she was taken off the field. “Fuck it hurts, fuck me it hurts. Have you given me any fucking painkillers? These painkillers are not working,” she reportedly said.
Her opponent Cirstea expressed concern about how long it took for her injury to be attended to by staff.
I went over and saw her knee out and turned around and told them to bring a stretcher because I think everyone froze. It was heartbreaking because she went into shock and it took a while until the medical team was there […] Her knee was in a very weird position. I have never seen anything like this except in the movies. I panicked a little bit as well and called for help but no one was coming and I tried to comfort her as much as I could but you could feel the pain.
The extent of the injury is unknown, and paramedics covered her knee with a towel as she was taken out of the venue.
Wimbledon defended the response time of the medical team on Twitter, claiming that a “qualified ambulance technician” was on the court “within one minute”.
Source: News.com.au.
Photo: Getty Images.
