Serena Williams, staggering, yelling, limping and crying, as her mother shook her head and her father stood and pointed to the heavens from opposite sides of the stadium, made one of the most harrowing and improbable escapes Wimbledon has ever seen in beating Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 yesterday.
The former holder of all four grand slam titles looked on the verge of a painful and humiliating defeat when she collapsed, with an injury to her left calf, and buried her face in the grass on the Centre Court baseline at 5-5 in the second set. There then followed confused and agonising repairs, apparently futile attempts to continue, and 16 rallies of crippled strokes and tear-jerking movement before rain came for the second time and saved her.
Somehow the younger Williams sister was then still a set up but 4-2 down in the tie-break. She might not have continued at all had not the clouds been rolling up in angry layers, which meant that she frequently looked upwards in hope and supplication, gleaming and grimacing as though making some internal prayer.
A sub-plot to this drama saw Serena's father, Richard, stand up and gesture upwards, apparently encouraging his daughter to appeal for a rain break, with Hantuchova then appealing to the umpire, complaining that the father had been indulging in illegal coaching.
It had been a well-contested match, with Hantuchova playing some spirited rallies and leading 4-1 in the second set, but not a tough one. The cold weather may have contributed to the injury and raised questions as to whether a lower level of fitness compared with Williams's physical peak might also have been a factor. Williams had run hard to the right to make a counter-hitting forehand drive, but was only trotting back to the backhand side as Hantuchova had room for a comfortable winner when she was struck down.
Just before she fell and rolled over, she was in such pain that she hacked her calf several times frighteningly hard with her racket, which suggested that injury might have been cramp, although it was later said to be a muscle strain.
Although only three minutes is allowed for repairs, the delay increased to nearer 10 with the time allowed for diagnosis. But when she stood and appeared unable to move it seemed certain that she would have to retire. But a look at the clouds indicated that it might be worth trying to receive and then limp from side to side. This she did for two points, during which Hantuchova concluded her service game.
That gained Williams another 90 seconds and the right to further treatment at the change of ends, with the knowledge that a further respite would be allowed at the end of the set by taking a bathroom break. Somehow she prolonged it further by winning her serve. She also won two points in the tie-break with a net cord return and a wicked backhand inside-out sliced drive which almost made the ball bounce sideways, which meant that when referee Andrew Jarrett came on and brought the masochistic drama to a halt, the set had not yet been lost.
When they restarted after 53 minutes Williams looked as though she could do little more than walk. But by the second game of the third set she was starting to run, and by the fourth she was galloping.
She got a code-of-conduct warning for smashing her racket on the turf after a failed Hawk-Eye challenge contributed to the loss of a game point, and also had three separate wrangles with an umpire over whether she could take a toilet break. But as the match began to turn her way, she never took it. She was striking the ball ferociously and it was no surprise that she broke serve at 4-2 and trampled through to an astonishing victory. It earned her a meeting with Justine Henin, who had been the first into the quarter-finals with an easy 6-2, 6-2 win over Patty Schnyder.
