Madison Keys speaks out for first time since heartbreaking Wimbledon exit

Oli Dickson Jefford 08 Jul 2024 3:52 PM

Madison Keys walks off court at Wimbledon.

Madison Keys suffered a heartbreaking injury as her Wimbledon campaign ended.

Madison Keys has spoken out for the first time since her gutwrenching exit from Wimbledon on Monday.

Two-time SW19 quarter-finalist and 12th seed Keys was forced to retire at 5-5 in the deciding set against seventh seed Jasmine Paolini in the opening match on Court 1 on Sunday.

The American, who reached the second of her Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2023, had twice served for the match before her retirement, and was in tears towards the end of the contest due to the hamstring injury she sustained.

On Monday, the former US Open finalist took to social media to provide fans with an update on the incident.

She wrote: “Well…the ending of yesterday’s match was probably one of my toughest moments ever on court.

“Unfortunately during the match, I injured my hamstring. I’ll be getting an MRI soon to see exactly what happened and what the severity of the injury is.

“I have a lot of mixed emotions that my Wimbledon ended like this and really appreciate all the nice messages I’ve gotten.

“Time to go home and get better.”

The injury was a devastating end to what had been one of the best contests of the tournament up until that point.

French Open finalist Paolini edged a high-quality opener, only for Keys to storm back in the second set.

The American looked to be convincingly forcing a decider at 5-1 up in set two but was pegged back by the seventh seed – who had not won a match at the tournament before this year.

However, Keys was able to claim the second in a tiebreak, and dominated the decider as she raced to a 5-2, double break advantage.

But it appeared that she injured herself towards the end of her first attempt to close out the match at 5-2, and was in obvious pain throughout the remaining minutes.

After double faulting to hand the second break back, Keys only completed one more point before her unfortunate retirement.

“Right now I’m so sorry for her,” said Paolini in her on-court interview.

“To end the match like this is bad – what can I say. I think we played a really good match. It was tough. A lot of ups and downs.

“I’m feeling a bit happy but also sad for her. It’s not easy to win like that.”

Keys’ retirement is not the only one to affect the start of the second week.

On the very same court later on Sunday, Grigor Dimitrov injured himself and was forced to retire just eight games into his round four clash against Daniil Medvedev.

While Anna Kalinskaya retired a set and a break down to Elena Rybakina on Centre Court on Monday.