Scotland Yard "is investigating allegations that a female tennis player was deliberately poisoned while competing at last month’s Wimbledon Championships," according to Evans, Dean & Wilkinson of the London TELEGRAPH. GABRIELLA TAYLOR, 18, "was forced to withdraw from the girl’s tournament midway through her quarter final match, after being struck down with a mystery illness." It "was initially thought that she had contracted a virus while playing overseas, but after spending four days in intensive care, doctors eventually diagnosed a rare strain of Leptospirosis, a disease caused by a bacterium that can be transmitted through rat urine." Police "launched a criminal investigation last week amid fears that she had been deliberately poisoned in an attempt to wreck her tournament chances." One theory being explored is that Taylor "may have been targeted by an organised crime betting syndicate." But the police investigation "will also raise questions over whether she could have been the subject of a malicious plot by a rival player or coach from the fiercely competitive junior circuit" (TELEGRAPH, 8/11). The BBC reported Taylor's mother, MILENA TAYLOR, said her daughter was "still not 100 percent." Her mother said the teenager, from Southampton, had been staying "in a completely healthy environment" and it was "impossible" for her to have simply become ill (BBC, 8/11).
