Serena Williams has withdrawn from the US Open after failing to fully recover from a torn hamstring. The 23-time grand slam champion, who won six of those titles at Flu!hing Meadows, has not played on the WTA Tour since sustaining the injury at Wimbledon in June. Serena Williams won’t be gracing the courts at Flu*hing Meadows next week.
In an Instagram post, Williams revealed that she’s withdrawn from the U.S. Open so she can continue healing her torn ha*string. Williams, 39, tore her ha*string during her first-round match agai*st Aliaksandra Sasnovich at Wimbledon. She wasn’t able to make it through the rest of the match and hasn’t participated in a tournament since, including the Tokyo Olympics.
Serena Williams will miss the 2021 US Open due to injury.
Get well soon, @serenawilliams! 💙 pic.twitter.com/ySXuuCRmPu
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 25, 2021
In the comments of the Instagram post, Williams’ longtime coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, wrote “You have tried everything.” Williams has always excelled at the U.S. Open. It’s where she won her first Grand Slam title in 1999, and she’d go on to win it another five times. She’s also been to the finals four times, most recently in 2018 and 2019. She won her last U.S. Open title in 2014.
This is another setback on Williams’ quest to tie Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam titles. She won her last Grand Slam in 2017, and since then has made it to two Wimbledon finals and two U.S. Open finals. Williams was unable to take the win all four times and has remained st*ck at 23.
While 23 is an Open Era record, it’s not the kind of history Williams wants to make. The U.S. Open is the last Grand Sl-am on the calendar, so Williams will have the rest of the year to recover before the Australian Open in January.