Wimbledon and the Poisoning allegations
During the Wimbledon Girls tournament, Great Britain’s Gabriella Taylor was forced to withdraw during her quarter-final match after falling ill. The extent of her illness was severe as she was taken to hospital, spending four days in intensive care.
Medical tests found that she had been hit with a rare strain of Leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease that occurs in rodents, but can be transmitted to humans through cuts and abrasions on the skin, or through water contaminated with the urine of infected animals.
The discovery prompted a police investigation with some fearing that she was deliberately poisoned at SW19 by an unknown individual. Taylor’s mother told The Telegraph in August that she was convinced that ‘it wasn’t an accident’.
“She was staying in a completely healthy environment. For her to get ill in these circumstances, with rat urine was just impossible.” Mrs Taylor said.
Since those extraordinary allegations, an expert has dismissed the likelihood of Taylor being deliberately targeted. Dr Anna Checkley, from the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, told the BBC that it would require somebody with ‘high expertise’ to poison Taylor in that specific way. Instead, she hypothesized that the most likely cause was due to infected water.
Little has been said from the police regarding the outcome of their investigation. Meanwhile, Taylor returned to the tour in October. Since then the 18-year-old has reached three consecutive ITF $10,000 finals in Greece. Taylor is currently ranked 377th in the world.
