Serena Williams suffers hilarious wardrobe mishap at Wimbledon
Serena Williams has been a trailblazer in tennis fashion throughout her career, but she had an unfortunate gaffe at the start of her mixed doubles match with Andy Murray.
The usually pristine Williams, who partnered Murray on centre court in a blockbuster pairing, forgot to take her accreditation off from her neck before she started play.
The former world number one played the first two points of the match before she realised her mistake, swiftly removing the lanyard during a break in play.
Unfortunately for Williams, what the officials at Wimbledon missed, social media picked up on.
An inauspicious start for Serena, who played the first two points with her accreditation still around her neck #wimbledon
— Jonathan Veal (@jonathandveal83) July 6, 2019
After the second point , @serenawilliams took something off from around her neck ...? Not her accreditation, surely ...?! 👀🎾 Ran over to her bag and threw it in... didn’t affect her and @andy_murray: immediate break of serve , first game pic.twitter.com/ahteXhugmK
— @Kheredine (@Kheredine2018) July 6, 2019
Has anyone else noticed @serenawilliams still has her @Wimbledon athlete accreditation on! 🤣
— Jo Calvino (@JoCalvino) July 6, 2019
Andy Murray is happy he ended his Centre Court exile with Williams at his side as Wimbledon's new power couple got their mixed doubles pairing off to a flying start.
The former world No.1 was back on his favourite court 724 days after he hobbled off in 2017 and he and the 23-time grand-slam winner beat Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi 6-4 6-1 on their debut outing on Saturday.
These two are used to winning on Centre Court - they have claimed nine singles titles between them - and they proved that no matter how new the partnership, old habits die hard.
"For me it was a great experience being back on Centre Court with Serena after the last year or so being tough. It was nice. I enjoyed it," the Scot said.
"I think like towards the end of the match when you're kind of in control on the scoreboard, it's easier to sort of relax and enjoy it, whereas the first set, we were obviously taking it seriously to win."
Never has a mixed-doubles partnership received so much attention, but it did not disappoint as Williams' baseline power and Murray's guile at the net means they will be a real force in this discipline.
Williams admitted that she was feeling nervous beforehand, perhaps which accounts for her playing the first two points of the match with her accreditation lanyard around her neck, but the American performed better than she expected.
"I didn't even want to be in it, I kind of just wanted to watch it. Maybe I'll try to get a video of it or watch it somewhere," she said.
"Overall, I think I was able to handle my nerves pretty good, do better than I thought I was going to do.
"It's definitely awesome to share a court with Andy, especially this particular stage. Like I said, whenever you're a grand-slam winner, you always learn something.
"But, yeah, we are still young in our relationship on the court. We still have a lot to learn."
WITH AAP