Sara Errani has criticised the umpire in her Australian Open second round match against Venus Williams after the American suffered what looked like a serious ankle injury.
Whilst 1-5 down in the first set, 40-year-old Williams appeared to badly twist her ankle and was struggling to put any weight on it at all.
The umpire did not act, though, with Venus Williams left to her own devices to hobble back to her chair to request a medical time-out.
“I didn’t understand what she had done in the beginning,” Errani told the press.
“I was really scared because I was thinking I didn’t know what happened. I don’t know. I was scared. I was watching her.
After hurting her ankle, Venus Williams can barely walk and she’s still out there fighting. Heart of a champion pic.twitter.com/rPaxlM8jMg
— D’Arcy Maine (@darcymaine_espn) February 10, 2021
“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.”
After receiving treatment, Williams refused to retire hurt and carried on despite barely being able to move around the court and failed to win another game, eventually losing 1-6, 0-6.
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