Police are investigating whether a one of Great Britain’s brightest future prospects in tennis was deliberately poisoned during this year’s Wimbledon Championships.
Gabriella Taylor was participating in the girls’ draw at SW19, where she was forced to retire midway through her quarter-final match against America’s Kayla Day. The mystery illness resulted in Taylor being hospitalised and spending four days in intensive care.
The identification of Taylor’s illness has now been identified and it has prompted a police investigation. Doctors discovered that the world No.381 had 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.
According to The Telegraph, who was the first media outlet to break the story, police are looking at a series of possible scenarios. Those include Taylor being deliberately poisoned by a criminal gang involved in betting and the possibility of a fellow player or coach committing the crime.
Taylor’s mother Milena believes that her daughter was deliberately targeted by somebody at the Wimbledon Championships. Mrs Taylor told The Telegraph that Gabriella left her bottles unattended numerous times at SW19, proving a prime opportunity for somebody to contaminate it.
“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.
“The bacteria the infection team found is so rare in Britain that we feel this could not have been an accident. Her bags with her drinks in were often left unattended in the players’ lounge and someone could have taken the opportunity to contaminate her drink.”
The Metropolitan police has confirmed to the British media that they are investigating ‘an allegation of ‘poisoning with intent to endanger life or cause GBH’.
“The allegation was received by officers on 5 August with the incident alleged to have taken place at an address in Wimbledon between 1-10 July,” the statement said.
“The victim was taken ill on 6 July. It is unknown where or when the poison was ingested. The victim, an 18 year-old woman, received hospital treatment and is still recovering.
“There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.”
The All England Lawn Tennis Club has said that they have not been contacted by the authorities concerning the investigation. They have also said that Taylor didn’t eat at the player facilities during the grand slam tournament.
18-year-old Taylor is the youngest player from her country ranked in the world’s top 400. She currently has two ITF $10,000 titles to her name (one in singles and one in doubles) and stunned world No.130 Lourdes Domínguez Lino earlier this year at the Wimbledon qualifying tournament.
