Doubles disharmony: Tan’s withdrawal leaves playing partner Korpatsch ‘angry’

After beating Serena Williams in an epic Wimbledon singles match on Monday night, Harmony Tan has pulled out of the women’s doubles event – prompting an angry response from her planned partner, Tamara Korpatsch.

Tan stunned Centre Court by defeating Williams in a first-round singles match that lasted more than three hours and will take on Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in the second round on Thursday. The French player took the decision to withdraw from doubles, citing a thigh injury – a decision that did not go down well with Korpatsch.

“Unfortunately my doubles partner H. Tan retired from our doubles today,” Korpatsch wrote on Instagram. “She just texted me this morning. Let me wait here [until] one hour before the match start. I’m very sad, disappointed and also very angry that I can’t play my first doubles Grand Slam.”

“It’s really not fair for me, I didn’t deserve that,” added the German player, who was beaten by Heather Watson in the first round of the singles tournament. “She asked me before the tournament if we wanna play doubles and I said yes. I didn’t ask her, she asked me!”

“If you’re broken after a 3h [three-hour] match the day before, you can’t play professional,” the post continued. “That’s my opinion.” Korpatsch added the hashtags #unsportsmanlike #notfair #unfair #mad and #sad to the end of her post.

Korpatsch and Tan were replaced in the draw by Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Peangtarn Plipuech for the first-round match against Nadiia Kichenok and Raluca Olaru. Tan has not yet responded to Korpatsch’s comments on social media.