Serena Williams withdraws from Hopman Cup with knee injury
Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Hopman Cup because of a knee injury and will not play in the USA’s final match on Thursday.
The world No1 missed the first match of the round-robin tournament and then retired during the second set of her match against Australia’s Jarmila Wolfe on Tuesday.
Williams revealed then that she was struggling with inflammation of her left knee but did not immediately rule herself out of Thursday’s meeting with the Czech Republic.
However, the tournament announced on its Twitter feed on Wednesday that the American had indeed withdrawn and would be replaced by Vicky Duval.
The injury must be a concern for Williams with less than two weeks to go until she begins the defence of her Australian Open title.
The 34-year-old American brought an early end to her 2015 season partly because of pain in her knees after seeing her grand slam dreams ended by Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals.
The world No1 missed the first match of the round-robin tournament and then retired during the second set of her match against Australia’s Jarmila Wolfe on Tuesday.
Williams revealed then that she was struggling with inflammation of her left knee but did not immediately rule herself out of Thursday’s meeting with the Czech Republic.
However, the tournament announced on its Twitter feed on Wednesday that the American had indeed withdrawn and would be replaced by Vicky Duval.
The injury must be a concern for Williams with less than two weeks to go until she begins the defence of her Australian Open title.
The 34-year-old American brought an early end to her 2015 season partly because of pain in her knees after seeing her grand slam dreams ended by Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals.