Venus Williams up for making her return at the Australian Open next month – Tennis Special
All the speculations about the former world number one, Venus Williams, were proven wrong when the tournament director, Craig Tiley, announced that the American veteran has confirmed her participation to the year’s first Grand
Slam event, the Australian Open, next month. Venus’ withdrawal from the ASB Classic in Auckland put her chances to compete at the Australian Open under lots of questions.
Tiley revealed that he has been in contact with Venus’ agent to affirm her participation at the Grand Slam event and he has received a very positive response. Battling out from Sjogren’s syndrome for the last couple of months,
the American tennis star has been struggling extremely hard to get back her physical fitness. She pulled out of her US Open campaign and has not been witnessed in action since then.
Venus was determined to make her return to the professional tennis at the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Tour event in Auckland, starting from the third to the eighth of next month. The winner of seven Grand Slam titles announced
last Monday that she is not 100 per cent fit to step on the tennis courts and will delay her comeback to the tennis world. Everyone was anticipating that Venus would not play the Australian Open next month but Tiley’s statement has given hope to all her fans.
The tournament director expressed that Venus’ agent has confirmed him that her withdrawal from the ASB Classic is to do nothing with her participation at the Australian Open and the former world number one will be available for
the mega event starting from 16th of January next season.
"I wanted to touch base but there's no change for her. She's coming," Tiley said in comments published by the Australian newspaper on Friday.
While citing her withdrawal from the Auckland event, Venus told her fans that she has not yet fully recovered from her illness and is suffering from fatigue and joint soreness. She didn’t mentioned as to how long she will take
to get fully fit for playing professional tennis, hence putting her chances to play the Australian Open in jeopardy. Venus has still not officially confirmed that she will play the Grand Slam in Melbourne but only the tournament director has given a statement
that certainly will b e apart of the event.
Venus has not yet started training on the courts and barely three weeks are left before her voyage at the Australian Open. The 31-yeaar-old American has played just 11 matches in the entire 2011 WTA season, sidelining from the
professional circuit for the most of the time. Her return to the tennis courts should be extremely carefully planned, as any other serious injury at this level might put her tennis career to an end. Some fans were of the view that Venus better not be too optimistic
and not make an early return at the Australian if she is not at her best. However, the seven-time Grand Slam winner has always been known for her impactful comebacks to the professional circuit after long spells of injury.
Venus claimed to play the most of the 2012 WTA season to reclaim her top rankings. The American has fallen to 102nd spot in the WTA women’s rankings for not playing most part of the year. She will feature an exhibition
match in Florida, along with her sister Serena Williams, for the sake of charity.
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