“Unfortunately, some of the falls have caused some of the players to withdraw, like Dimitrov, [and] we saw Zverev as well in his previous match slightly injured his knee. It’s part of this surface. You can’t really change that. I mean, it’s grass. It’s a live surface, and it reacts to different conditions, the humidity, etcetera.”
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Kokkinakis admitted pre-tournament he was more tentative with his movement on grass after two previous falls on the surface before his nasty-looking incident last week, where his right foot slid out, and his left knee crumbled underneath him.
De Minaur said he had experienced a “mental blockage” of being “scared of sliding on grass” in the past, but had convinced himself to do it, as if he was on a hardcourt.
“You never want to see this, but I think on grass we’re in a quite interesting dynamic when it comes to movement,” de Minaur said.
“I think in previous years we saw very few players sliding on a grasscourt. You would have your odd standout person, which normally was Novak, sliding on the grass. I feel like as the years progress, sliding on a grasscourt is becoming more seen or used.
“A lot of us players, including myself, are getting a lot more confidence on a grasscourt with being able to slide and back your movement in that way. Whether it’s the right decision or not, I don’t know.”
Dimitrov (knee), Raducanu (back), Zverev (knee), Monfils (knee/wrist) and Keys (thigh) all sought treatment in, or retired from, their respective matches.
Monfils slid so far while trying to chase a ball during his straight-sets loss to Dimitrov that he almost took out a line judge at the back of the court, then remained down for an extended period holding his left knee.
“I slipped. It was unfortunate. I tried not to hurt the lines umpire,” Monfils said. “I had to put my wrist [out] just, of course, to stop a little bit, so I think I hurt a little bit my wrist, but the rest I was a bit worried about was my knee – but the knee was fine.”
Zverev had an MRI scan between matches after his fall in the third round and played with a brace on his left knee in his five-set defeat in the last 16 to American Taylor Fritz.
“I have a bone edema in my knee, then I have also a tear in my capsule in my knee. That came from the fall,” Zverev said. “It is quite painful for that period of time. It is nothing that I need surgery on ... it just needs time.”
De Minaur said the extra grip in grasscourt shoes made sliding on the surface similar to sliding on a hardcourt, and that players were constantly seeking an edge with their movement.
“If we had normal hardcourt shoes, you’d see everyone sliding like it was probably even more than clay,” de Minaur said.
“But the fact that we’ve got so much grip on our shoes, then we’ve got to commit to a slide, which you do on a hardcourt as well. Once you get through that, I guess that scare factor that you’re going to roll your ankle or something like that [goes away].
“You just trust that you’ve got enough momentum to kind of slide – it’s a game-changer on the grass.
“Any extra inch you can get, movement-wise, on the grass is definitely a big advantage over your opponents.”
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Marc McGowan is at Wimbledon with the support of Tennis Australia.
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