The All England Club insists it provided Bethanie Mattek-Sands with urgent medical assistance almost immediately after the doubles star suffered a sickening knee injury.

The American wildcard fell awkwardly during the third set of her Wimbledon second-round singles clash with Sorana Cirstea and spent several minutes screaming in agony.

Her Romanian opponent was visibly shaken after going to the aid of the 32-year-old, who was targeting a rare doubles grand slam sweep in tandem with Lucie Safarova after their successes at the US, Australian and French Opens.

“These painkillers are not working,” she was heard to say before she was taken off the court, according to British media reports.

“Please knock me out! Please knock me out!”

Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffered a sickening injury while on court. Photo: EPA

Cristea later questioned the length of time it took for Mattek-Sands to be put on a stretcher and taken off Court 17 and to hospital for surgery.

“I called for help, but no one was coming,” Cirstea said.

“I tried to comfort her as much as I could but, I mean, you could feel the pain.

“If someone wants to check, probably they should check the video and time to see how long it took.

“But, for me, I was there; it felt like so long.

“There are sports, like football, where you see something’s happening, you see help straightaway

“Here, it took a while. So of course you wonder what happen if it was a heart issue or something like this. You start wonder.

“I mean, I was there for 10, 15 minutes, then I left and the stretcher was not there yet.”

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However, in a statement Wimbledon insisted medical supervision arrived almost immediately.

“The first response to Court 17 was within one minute, by a qualified ambulance technician,” the statement read.

“The player was kept on court while pain relief was given.

“The player was then transferred directly to an ambulance and taken under emergency conditions to a hospital

A club spokesperson confirmed to AAP that a courtside stretcher was available but wasn’t brought out until Matek-Sands had been administered with painkillers to numb her pain.

– AAP