Serena Williams “Officially” Out for the Year
As predicted, former World Number 1 on the Women’s Tennis Association, Serena Williams, has dropped out for the entire season, imitating the move pulled by the older Williams, less than two weeks after Venus announced her retirement from the rest of the
championships of 2010.
The announcement, sent by her agent through an email on Tuesday, stated that the younger Williams sister had re-torn the tendon in her right foot, which was originally injured due to a cut sustained from glass shards on a restaurant floor in Munich, Germany.
She suffered this injury after Wimbledon, in July, and her first surgery on it was on the 15 July. It hardly comes as any surprise to fans or critics, who had already predicted that the top tennis player would drop out for the year.
Serena Williams played her last match on 3 July, when she served a crushing defeat to Vera Zvonareva (6-3, 6-2), winning her fourth Wimbledon tournament trophy. This was her 13th Grand Slam title during her career. Although she injured her foot
after this victory, Serena played an exhibition match on 8 July against Kim Clijsters in Brussels, before having an operation a week later.
As a consequence, she withdrew from the US Open, and returned to practice in September. However, she put off her comeback once again by pulling out of tournaments such as the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, the China Open in Beijing and the Generali Ladies
Linz in Austria. Updates on her website say, “It is with deep frustration that I am withdrawing from the WTA Championships at Doha and the Fed Cup Final. Pushed by my desire to return to competition, I trained too hard too soon and re-tore the tendon in my
foot. As a result, yesterday morning I had to have another procedure to repair it. I thank everyone for their continued support during this difficult time and look forward with strength and determination to getting back on the court.”
Her decision to call it quits for the year is similar to her sister’s, who says she won’t play for the remaining tournaments of the year due to an injury she suffered on her left knee. The two sisters will miss the end of year WTA Championship tournaments,
held next week in Doha, Qatar as well as the Fed Cup final, to be fought between the United States of America and Italy in San Diego in November. Both the sisters had committed to the USTA in August, saying they planned to compete at the indoor hard court
event, before dropping out one after the other. Says Mary Joe Fernandez, captain of the Fed Cup team, “It’s unfortunate about Venus and Serena. The team was really looking forward to having them on the team. We wish them a speedy recovery. Our team is excited
to be in final for second straight year and we will give it our all as usual and try to pull off another upset.”
WTA CEO Stacey Allaster issued a statement on Tuesday saying, “Earlier this year, Serena missed all of February, March and April because of a left knee problem. So she closes 2010 having participated in only six singles tournaments, going 25-4 with two titles
- at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.” She also offers Serena her best wishes, saying, “We wish her a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing her back at full strength for the 2011 season.”
This continued absence has cost Serena Williams the World Number 1 slot to Major-less Caroline Wozniacki, and she may slip further down the ranking ladder if she perseveres in missing tournaments in 2011.
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