An Achilles injury has forced 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams to withdraw from the French Open ahead of her second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova.
The 39-year-old was scheduled to meet Pironkova on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday morning but pulled out ahead of the contest.
Williams had sustained the Achilles problem at the US Open and was not able to recover sufficiently even after her first-round 7-6 (7-2) 6-0 victory over Kristie Ahn.
The American tennis superstar realised that she would not be able to compete after getting on court for her warm-up.
“After I warmed up – it was a very short warm-up – I talked to my coach and I was like, ‘What do you think?’,” she says.
“We both thought about it and we really realised that it likely wasn’t the best for me to play today.
“I love playing in Paris, I really wanted to give an effort here. My Achilles didn’t have time to properly heal. I’m struggling to walk so that’s kind of a tell-tale sign that I should try to recover.”
This, however, is another setback for Williams who has her sights still set on a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title.
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She also disclosed that she didn’t feel she would be able to get through enough matches in Paris and now has to go through four to six weeks of rehabilitation time, starting with at least two weeks of complete rest.
“I’m definitely going to take that first two weeks of doing nothing and then I will start doing a little training,” she says.
“Doing the math on that, I don’t know if I’ll be able to play another tournament this year.
“I’m going to take the initial two weeks and then start from there…. it will give me a lot of time to fully recover for the future.”
US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka crashes out in France
Tenth seed Victoria Azarenka was the first big-name beaten at Roland-Garros on Wednesday as she fell in straight-sets to Slovak’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
The Belarusian joined the casualty list, which includes three-time champion Serena Williams following the No.6 seed’s withdrawal earlier on Wednesday due to an Achilles problem.
Azarenka had no answers in a 6-2, 6-3 defeat to the world No.161 despite coming off the back of her first Grand Slam final in seven years at the US Open and had reached the quarter-finals in Rome.
Schmiedlova had snapped a 13-match Grand Slam main draw losing streak to down Venus Williams in the opening round – her third straight over the American – and has now equalled her best run at a major from the 2015 US Open and 2014 Roland-Garros.
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