England, Jun28: Sevens seconds: That's how long French Open runner-up Sara Errani “played” at Wimbledon to wrap up a 6-1, 6-3 victory against American qualifier CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round on Wednesday.
How's that possible? Because action was suspended by rain a night earlier, with the 10th-seeded Errani at match point as the 132nd-ranked Vandeweghe served.
When they resumed, after the customary several-minutes warmup ritual of baseline strokes, volleys, overheads and serves, Vandeweghe tossed up a ball and hit it into the net.
Moments later, she hit her second serve into the net, too, to complete the double-fault that ended the match, right then and there—leaving both women smiling and spectators chuckling. Errani joined in the laughter as she packed away her racket bag, and kept right on giggling during her news conference.
Asked by an Italian reporter to recount what happened, Errani said, justifiably: “There's not much to tell.”
Asked by another whether she'd bothered to take a shower, Errani assured him she planned to later.
“I had talked to my coach to plan what I wanted to do in the match,” Errani said, “but there was no need.”
Errani is supposed to go back out on Thursday to face Anne Keothavong of Britain.
But it seems safe to say Errani will need to put in a little more time and effort on court—weather permitting, of course.
