Serena Williams has pulled out of the year’s first tennis event, the Hopman Cup, due to a lingering knee injury. She was replaced with 20-year old Vicky Duval who lost in straight sets to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. This was Williams today:
“I’m disappointed to not take to the court in Perth today. I had every intention to play this morning. Unfortunately due to inflammation in my knee, I need to rest and am confident to be out there against Aussie Gold tomorrow evening.”
As she sets to defend her first Grand Slam of the year in two weeks, her trainer Patrick Mouratoglou says that without rest, she could run into issues down the line.
“At her age, her career could really be in danger if she went too far and got more injured like Rafa [Nadal] did in the past. He kept on playing with the same problem and then it got worse and he had to stop for almost a year.”
The Australian Open begins January 18th.