[ti:Wet Wimbledon Grass Causes Falls, Disappointment] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.20]The Wimbledon tennis championship in London [00:05.04]has been marked by wet weather and slippery conditions. [00:10.76]The famous tennis competition, [00:13.48]one of four major championships in the sport, started Monday. [00:19.28]Early in the week, top-ranked player Novak Djokovic [00:24.72]fell and landed on his backside two times. [00:29.16]He was not injured. [00:32.56]But on Day 2, Roger Federer's opponent, Adrian Mannarino, [00:39.28]lost his footing, too. [00:42.56]He was not so lucky. [00:45.12]The Frenchman's 33rd birthday ended with a knee injury [00:50.88]and a loss because he was too hurt to continue. [00:56.68]That also happened to tennis star Serena Williams on Tuesday. [01:03.48]It was her latest attempt to tie the record [01:07.28]for major tennis championship wins with 24. [01:13.04]But the game left her crying after just 30 minutes. [01:19.72]She injured her right leg when her left shoe lost footing [01:25.28]in almost the same place that Mannarino had. [01:31.08]She told the press that she was heartbroken [01:34.48]to have to leave the competition. [01:39.04]All those games were played with the stadium's [01:42.80]movable roof closed because of rain. [01:48.00]And that is what the All England Club blames [01:52.64]for how slippery the grass has been. [01:56.72]The All England Club is a sports membership group [02:01.28]that has supervised Wimbledon since the competition began [02:06.60]in the 19th century. [02:10.04]The club said the two opening days this year [02:14.20]have been the wettest ones of Wimbledon in almost 10 years. [02:21.40]Keeping the roof closed for a long period [02:25.04]leads to wetter grass, the club said in a statement. [02:31.00]It was released after Williams and Mannarino [02:35.56]got hurt and left the competition. [02:40.44]Federer told the Associated Press [02:43.88]that the courts do seem a little more slippery under the roof. [02:50.80]"You do have to move very, very carefully out there." [02:54.84]If you push too hard at the wrong times, "you do go down," he said. [03:02.04]Federer is an eight-time Wimbledon champion. [03:06.88]"I do feel it's drier during the day. [03:10.56]With the wind and all that stuff, it takes the (wetness) out of the grass." [03:17.96]The club's statement added that the grass has been prepared [03:22.40]with the same level of care as in past years. [03:27.84]Wimbledon's courts are removed each year and new grass is planted. [03:35.24]Neil Stubley leads the club's court preparation efforts. [03:43.36]Before the competition on Monday, [03:46.12]he said the club did all the usual preparations [03:50.88]even though Wimbledon did not happen in 2020. [03:57.40]The grass does have a little more wetness on the surface [04:01.68]during the start of the competition, the club said in its statement. [04:08.04]It added that, with each game played, [04:11.40]the courts will continue to get firmer. [04:16.80]Federer offered a similar reaction. [04:20.72]He knows the space well, having first played [04:24.40]at Wimbledon in 1999 and first won in 2003. [04:32.12]For a lot of the players, he said, it is important [04:36.24]to get through those first two rounds, [04:39.76]because that is when the grass is slippery. [04:43.68]"It is more soft," he said. [04:47.40]But as the competition progresses, [04:50.08]the grass usually gets "harder and easier to move on." [04:56.00]I'm Alice Bryant. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM