Serena retires from Wimbledon opener with leg injury

Serena Williams retired in a Grand Slam match for only the
second time. 2018 photo by Mal Taam

   Sixth-seeded Serena Williams retired from her first-round match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus at Wimbledon today with a right leg injury.

   Williams, who won the last of her seven Wimbledon singles titles five years ago, slipped on the grass while hitting a forehand at 3-1 in the first set. The match ended two games later at 3-3. 

   It's only the second time that Williams — who won the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014 — has retired from a Grand Slam match. The first occurred in the third round at Wimbledon in 1998.

   In the preceding match on Centre Court, Adrian Mannarino of France retired against eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer at two sets apiece after a similar fall. The roof had been closed because of rain. 

   Williams, who will turn 40 in September, failed for the 13th time since becoming a mother to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

   Williams' last major crown came in the 2017 Australian Open. She has reached four Grand Slam finals since then, including two at Wimbledon, but none since the 2019 U.S. Open.

   Sam Querrey's first-round match against 11th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain was postponed until Wednesday.

   Querrey, a 33-year-old San Francisco native, reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017 and quarterfinals in 2016 and 2019. Carreno Busta, a two-time U.S. Open semifinalist, is 0-5 at Wimbledon.