LONDON (Reuters) – Hours after knocking Serena Williams out of Wimbledon in a late-night Centre Court epic, France’s Harmony Tan pulled out of the women’s doubles due to a thigh injury — and her partner was not impressed.
Tan’s withdrawal ended German Tamara Korpatsch’s hopes of playing her first Grand Slam doubles match.
“Unfortunately my doubles partner H. Tan retired from our doubles today. She just texted me this morning. Let me wait here one hour before the match start,” the 27-year-old wrote on Instagram.
“I’m very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can’t play my 1st Doubles Grand Slam. And It’s really not fair for me… I didn’t deserve that.”
Tan needed three hours and 11 minutes to beat Williams, a seven-times Wimbledon singles champion, under the lights in the first round on Tuesday and there was no indication that she will not continue her singles campaign.
Each doubles pair will receive 12,500 pounds ($15,000) for a first-round appearance at the tournament.
“She asked me before the tournament if we wanna play doubles and I said yes, I didn’t ask her, she asked me!,” said Korpatsch, who lost her first-round singles match to Britain’s Heather Watson.
“If you’re broken after a three-hour match the day before, you can’t play professional,” Korpatsch added. “That’s my opinion.”
($1 = 0.8254 pounds)
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Ed Osmond)
