Wimbledon 2024: Are the grass courts and rain a dangerous combination?

WIMBLEDON, England — Nine players were out of the competition before play even began at the All England Club.

Four women and five men withdrew from Wimbledon with injuries in the seven days between the start of qualifying and the start of the main draw and were replaced by lucky losers. It was the most women to do so at the tournament in 30 years.

Since then, injuries have continued to plague the event. Four women and four men retired during their singles matches, with two more men withdrawing ahead of their upcoming matches. No. 9 seed Alex de Minaur withdrew just hours before his quarterfinal clash against Novak Djokovic with a hip injury sustained during match point of his fourth-round victory.

“It’s devastating, no way to beat around the bush” de Minaur said Wednesday. “I knew as soon as I felt that pop, I knew something bad had happened … I think this injury is more of a freak injury. It’s an excessive amount of force made to slide on a grass court.”

He’s not the only one to cite the grass as a factor for an injury here, or during other tournaments from the brief season on the surface leading into Wimbledon. Far from it, in fact.

Danielle Collins, the No. 11 seed, injured her leg during her fourth-round match against Barbora Krejcikova on Monday. She was able to finish the match, losing in straight sets, but needed to receive treatment during the second set and had it wrapped by a trainer.

“It’s amazing how I think on the grass, how much the movement is in your mind and you think about every little step that you take. I feel like I stopped thinking about that for one second, and I ended up hurting my leg,” Collins said after the match. “I feel like obviously there’s been a ton of injuries on the grass, left and right. It seems like people are going down.”

That same day, Alexander Zverev slipped on a patch of green — or unworn — grass and hyperextended his knee. He later compared himself to a “cow on ice” on the surface and then said he was playing on “one leg” during his fourth-round loss to Taylor Fritz two days later. Madison Keys sustained a leg injury late in the third set of her fourth-round match against Jasmine Paolini and tearfully retired at 5-all. Grigor Dimitrov slipped and fell on the grass of his match in the same round against Daniil Medvedev. He too was forced to retire from the match and later said it was an abductor tear in his left leg that would require rehab. The list goes on.

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