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Serena retires from Wimbledon doubles match in bizarre scene

LONDON -- After appearing listless and disoriented, Serena Williams retired from her second-round doubles match at Wimbledon on Tuesday. Serena and her sister

Courtney Nguyen

Serena retires from Wimbledon doubles match in bizarre scene
Serena retires from Wimbledon doubles match in bizarre scene /

LONDON -- After appearing listless and disoriented, Serena Williams retired from her second-round doubles match at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

Serena and her sister Venus pulled out only three games into the first set against Kristina Barrois and Stefanie Voegele. The tournament referee later said the world's No. 1 singles player was suffering from a viral illness. 

"I'm heartbroken I'm not able to continue in the tournament," Serena said in a statement more than two hours after the match. "I thought I could rally this morning, because I really wanted to compete, but this bug just got the best of me."

Serena, 32, who lost her third-round singles match to No. 25 Alize Cornet on Saturday, whiffed on shots and struggled to collect balls tossed to her during the warm-up. The start of the match was delayed for about 10 minutes as doctors examined her and took her blood pressure.

Watch part of the warm-up below:

Serving in the third game, Serena hit four straight double faults. None of the serves had any pace, nor were they remotely close to landing in. A few fell well in front of the net. After her third double fault, chair umpire Kader Nouni climbed down and consulted with the younger sister. Serena then served another double fault, and the Williamses retired trailing 0-3.

Here's what Serena looked like trying to serve:

(via @SportAnding)

Content is unavailable

(via @Shane B)

Watch the entire service game below:

Serena's coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, and hitting partner Sascha Bajin said after the match that they had no idea what was wrong with the 17-time Grand Slam singles champion, according to The New York Times.

This story has been updated.

Published
Courtney Nguyen
COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.

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