By Richard Pagliaro
Kiki Bertens could barely walk while making a stirring stand.
Battling sporadic cramps in her left leg, right foot and both hands, Bertens soared for a tricky high backhand volley on match point then collapsed to the court after a gritty and contentious 7-6(5), 3-6, 9-7 victory over Sara Errani to stagger into the Roland Garros third round for the fourth time.
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“At the end like once I fell down on the floor and really all the excitement was gone I started like total body cramp, so, yeah, that was not a great feeling, of course,” said Bertens after a grueling three hour, 11-minute stress test of nerve and serve.
Climbing off the clay, a tearful Bertens was wailing in pain as a medical team came to her aid with a wheelchair. After enduring minutes of what appeared to be full-body cramps at times, Bertens was carted off Court 14 in a wheelchair wiping tears from her face with a towel.
“It was a roller coaster, to be honest,” Bertens said. “Physically I didn't feel great, like I was cramping, I think everyone could really see that.
"But it was weird because I didn't feel really tired to but I was sweating a lot, I was cold, so I don't know what it really was, maybe a little bit of tension of course also in the body. But I kept on fighting and I still don't know how I did manage to get the win.”
This was a wild and crazy match that featured some adventurous running rallies, 24 breaks of serve, including 10 consecutive service breaks in the final set, 14 double faults from the diminutive Italian, dizzying drama and near-paralyzing tension. Errani, struggling to tame her unruly toss that often floated back behind her head, caught several tosses in a row at one point incurring a time violation warning before serving underhanded.
The 2012 Roland Garros runner-up to Maria Sharapova, Errani served for the match three times in a row—at 5-4, 6-5 and 7-6—but could not close as she was chasing her toss and couldn't consistently accelerate her racquet on serve.
An epic clash degenerated into acrimony and accusations as Errani, in a shoddy, surprising lack of sportsmanship, didn't check on her opponent's health status, refused the customary post-match racquet tap and stormed off the court muttering an expletive court-side observers interpreted as the Italian word “vaffanculo” or “F—k Off” in English.
Bitter in defeat, the 33-year-old Italian was still seething afterward accusing Bertens of a competitive con job.
Qualifier Errani, who mocked Bertens at times, said afterward she was angry because she believed the Dutchwoman was exaggerating the extent of her cramps between points but then resumed running during points.
“I don't know how to say in English when somebody [is] joking on you,” said Errani, who carried a 5-0 record vs. Bertens onto court, including a comeback win in their last match at the Rio Olympics in 2016. “She can play an amazing match. She played an amazing match, but I don't like the situation.
“One hour she's injury, then she run like never. I don't like that. She go out of the court on the chair, and now she's in the locker perfect, in the restaurant. I don't like these things. I'm sorry.”
Asked her response to Errani’s faking claims, Bertens said she’s an athlete not an actress.
“She can say whatever she feels like, but yeah, well, then maybe I should take some more acting classes or should pursue a career in that, I'm not sure what she's thinking, but, no, I didn't feel really good on court to be honest,” Bertens said. “But a good thing I think it was for me that all the time the cramps were coming and going again, it was not like that it was staying in the body.
“So I felt like I had to stay calm and not be pumped too much because all the time when I did the fist pump like I could not do the fingers any more normal, so I just try to stay calm and try to let the cramps go again.”
Asked if she felt her opponent was hurt, Errani was evasive.
"Did you see her running less? I mean she run like never all the point for one hour," Errani said. "You know these things. Of course, good job for her. If you want to do like that, is a good job. I think she can even do the same without doing that.
"It was good. I'm bad because was hurting me and make me angry. So well done for her."
Despite the gamesmanship accusation, Bertens took the high road suggesting Errani was venting after an agonizing defeat—and should look in the mirror for the real reason she lost.
“No, it's not nice to hear, no, of course not,” Bertens said. “But for me I don't want to try to take it too personal because I also know like her frustrations.
“I think she's also frustrated with herself that she could not close out that match and but she had her opportunities as well, so it's maybe not fair to take it out of me, she could also look to herself and just see like what she could do better.”
A 2016 Roland Garros semifinalist, Bertens will try to recover in time for her third-round match vs. Katerina Siniakova.
"Feeling much better, to be honest," Bertens said. "Yes I had like a whole ice massage, I had some food, I had drinks. So I'm feeling much better... I really had time to recover and I'm feeling much better than a few hours ago."