Horrific Bethanie Mattek-Sands knee injury leads to Wimbledon criticism

Wimbledon has come under fire following the gruesome injury suffered by Bethanie Mattek-Sands in her second round match against Sorana Cirstea on Thursday (6 July).

Mattek-Sands was approaching the net during the third set before her leg gave out and she fell awkwardly in what was later revealed to be an "acute knee injury."

As Cirstea went to check up on her fallen opponent, Mattek-Sands started screaming in agony, asking for help as a stunned Court 17 could only watch on in silence.

Despite the player being in excruciating pain, medical help arrived rather slowly as a stretcher only came an estimated 10 to 15 minutes after the incident.

"It was heartbreaking because she went into shock," Cirstea reflected, as quoted on The Daily Mail. "Her knee was in a very weird position. I've never seen anything like this probably except in the movies."

"And I panicked a little bit, as well. It took a while until the medical team was there. I think for long time it was me, her husband and my physio with her. I called for help, but no one was coming. I was there on the ground, and it felt forever.

"It took a really long time not only for the stretcher to get there, I would say 10 or 15 minutes. For me, that's really long. Of course you wonder what happen if it was a heart issue or something like this."

Wimbledon defended their response time to the injury, stating that a qualified ambulance technician was on the scene within a minute.

"The first response to Court 17 was within 1 minute, by a qualified ambulance technician," the statement said. "The player was kept on court while pain relief was given. The player was then transferred directly into an ambulance and taken under emergency conditions to a hospital."

The Grand Slam was also criticized for its court surfaces, with fellow tennis player Kristina Mladenovic revealing that she heard numerous complaints from other players about it.

However, Cirstea refused to blame the surface for the American's injury.

"We all know grass is a little bit more dangerous than hard court or clay," she added. "What happened today was unfortunate. I mean, it was just bad luck."