Five-times Wimbledon champion, Serena Williams, dropped out of the famed tennis tournament Tuesday morning (July 1), due to a strange viral illness.
Reports ABC News:
The 32-year-old tennis star, who won the U.S. Open last fall, was forced to forfeit the match after struggling to bounce, catch and serve the ball.
Wimbledon tweeted that Williams was “suffering from a viral illness” as she left the court hand-in-hand with her sister, Venus.
“I thought I could rally this morning, because I really wanted to compete, but this bug just got the best of me,” Williams said in a statement.
Experts called the behavior “very unusual.”
“I’ve seen her play before,” said Dr. Dr. George Kikano, who practices family medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and has not treated Williams. “She is a master on the court. She does not miss a ball. She does not miss a beat. She does not miss a serve. This is very unusual for her.”
A Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, reports that Williams didn’t appear to be suffering from a neurological virus because she was still able to walk on her own. He theorizes that dehydration could be at the root of the problem. “That could be a consequence of any number of viral illnesses,” he said. “It’s still too vague to comment on unless they give us more details.”
We hope this doesn’t become a health scare and is something that can be easily treated.
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Photo: WENN
