Sorana Cirstea experienced probably the worst victory of her career in the Wimbledon 2nd round after Bethanie Mattek-Sands had to be rushed to the hospital following a terrible knee injury.
Shocked, but also upset with the medical team. CIRSTEA
During the post-match press conference, the Romanian commented about what has happened and she wondered why it took so long for the medical team to take action.
“It was heartbreaking to see her that way. I hit a ball in her direction and didn’t really see what happened. I saw she was on the floor and she started screaming.
I went over and saw her knee out and turned around and told them to bring a stretcher because I think everyone froze. It was heartbreaking because she went into shock and it took a while until the medical team was there. For a while, it was me, my husband and her physio.
I’d say she was on the ground for 10- 15 minutes and that is really long. In some sports, help is there straight away.
It was not easy as it is not about tennis anymore. We are like a family and we want everyone to be ok. I hope it is not as bad as it seemed and she can have a quick recovery. I am very sad about everything that happened.
Her knee was in a very weird position. I have never seen anything like this except in the movies. I panicked a little bit as well and called for help but no-one was coming and I tried to comfort here as much as I could but you could feel the pain.
She went into shock and saying ‘Sorana help me, Sorana help me, Sorana help me’ and I said ‘I am here, you are strong you can do this’ but I felt useless because in this moment it was a very uncomfortable moment and I felt useless.
I wish I could do more. You could see straight away the knee was not in the right position. The knee cap was out a little bit but it wasn’t in a normal position that is why I also freaked out because I have never seen this. Hopefully, it is not as bad as it seems and she won’t need surgery.
I did not digest this yet because it was so quick. Someone should probably check the video and time it but for me there it felt so long. There are sports you see something and the help is there straight away.
Here it took a while and you wonder if it was a heart issue or something like this. You start to wonder. But someone has to time and see how long it took people to get there. For me, she was too long on the ground.”
