Former British No1 Greg Rusedski said he was ‘disappointed’ that Serena Williams opted not to speak to the media following her Wimbledon first-round defeat.
Williams accepted a wildcard invitation from the All England Club to play her first professional singles match since the 2022 US Open.
But the 44-year-old’s run in the singles draw was short-lived as she suffered a 6-3 7-6 6-3 defeat to Australia’s Maya Joint in the first round.
Williams fought back well after going a set and a break down, but eventually faded to allow Joint to reach the second round at SW19 for the first time in her career.
Williams was greeted with a standing ovation as she exited Centre Court, but then surprisingly opted to skip her post-match media duties in what could be the final singles match of her illustrious career.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion did provide brief quotes, with her agent later explaining that a knee injury and lengthy physio treatment were the reasons she had to forgo her media duties.
But former US Open finalist Rusedski said Williams’ decision still left him disappointed, particularly given she needed a wildcard just to feature at Wimbledon.
‘In my days, I don’t think we had that luxury unless we were wheeled off in a wheelchair or we had some terrible incident happen to us like Sasha Zverev when he played Rafael Nadal a few years ago at the French Open,’ he said on the Off Court podcast
‘But I think you’d have to do the press conference. There is no question that she deserved a wildcard, you’re not going to say to one of the biggest legends of the game who wants to play singles [no]. You are definitely going to give her one, with all the majors that she won.
‘But it kind of feels a little bit bad that she didn’t do a press conference after she lost because she, if she was that bad, they could have wheeled her in, put some ice on the knee.
‘Just say, thank you so much to Wimbledon for giving me the wild card and this opportunity. Give credit to her opponent for coming through and just talk about the situation.’
Rusedski continued: ‘I think it’s a responsibility of a great champion and every player usually gets a fine if they don’t do the press conference.
‘Maybe she was so upset, she didn’t want to walk in there and say anything she regretted, but I kind of feel I’d like to hear from Serena.
‘You can put social media posts out there all you want. And most of these players are hiring somebody for thousands of pounds a month to make their image look good and to put their soundbites in.
‘But we want to see raw emotion and we want to see truth come out of these people. And for me, I’m a little bit disappointed. I didn’t get to hear from Serena after a loss, which must’ve been very, very difficult to take.’
Williams still hopes to compete in the women’s doubles with her sister, Venus, in the coming days and tournament director Jamie Baker said Wimbledon will be flexible to try and give Serena the time to recover.
‘We are giving her as much time,’ he said. ‘Obviously we want her to play, if she possibly can. In terms of the days, it is a guideline. That is what we’re hoping to do to try and get the tournament finished.
‘There are sometimes exceptional circumstance, whether that’s weather, injuries or actually sometimes conflicts of players playing in two of three events.
‘It doesn’t happen that often but occasionally you do get the odd match that carries over and we wouldn’t do that if we felt that it was putting the competition in any kind of danger.’
Serena and Venus will have to play a main show court – either Centre Court, Court 1 or Court 2 – because of security concerns with putting them on an outside court.
‘Serena and Venus, they are massive global stars so there is a lot of people that want to watch them,’ Baker added. ‘That [security] is a major consideration with scheduling.
‘Not just with Serena and Venus but any of our singles matches that we know have got a big following. The first thing we think about is the numbers at matches and the safety.’
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