Serena Williams Pulls Out of U.S. Open

Serena Williams withdrew from the U.S. Open on Wednesday, extending her latest break from tennis, the sport she once dominated.

“After careful consideration and following the advice of my doctors and medical team, I have decided to withdraw from the US Open to allow my body to heal completely from a torn hamstring,” she wrote on Instagram. “New York is one of the most exciting cities in the world and one of my favorite places to play — I’ll miss seeing the fans but will be cheering everyone on from afar. Thank you for your continued support and love. I’ll see you soon.”

Williams, who is ranked 22nd on the WTA Tour at age 39, has not played on tour since retiring in the first set of her first-round match at Wimbledon on June 29 because of an injured right hamstring. She was in tears as she shook the hand of her opponent, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and she stumbled as she exited Centre Court, receiving assistance to reach the clubhouse.

She skipped last week’s Western & Southern Open near Cincinnati to allow herself more time to recover, and said in a statement that she planned “to be back on the court very soon.”

But she could not recover in time to play at the U.S. Open, where she has won six singles titles, including her first Grand Slam singles title in 1999 as a teenager. The 2021 tournament begins on Monday in New York.

Patrick Mouratoglou, Williams’s coach, said on Wednesday that the entire team knew right away that being ready for the U.S. Open would be a challenge, given the severity of the injury. He said that if the tournament were in three or four weeks she would most likely be able to compete, but that the risk of long-term damage competing now was too great.

“We tried everything,” Mouratoglou said in an interview on Wednesday. “She did everything she could.”

Williams last missed the U.S. Open in 2017 when she was taking an extended break from the sport because of the birth of her daughter, Olympia. She returned to the tour in March 2018. She had participated in every Grand Slam event that had been held since her return.

She lost the 2018 U.S. Open final to Naomi Osaka of Japan and the 2019 U.S. Open final to Bianca Andreescu of Canada. Last year, when the tournament was held without spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic, she lost in the semifinals to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in three sets.

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“It showed that her injury had partially healed, but not totally, and in a way that was very insufficient for her to be able to move,” he said in an interview with Tennis Majors, a website in which both he and Williams are investors. “When you are 20 days away from a major tournament and you haven’t sprinted for five or six weeks, you know that you are off to a bad start.”

Mouratoglou said he traveled to Florida to join Williams and the rest of her team several weeks ago. “She did all she could do: daily therapy and the fitness training she could manage in order to lose as little time as possible,” he said. “At one point, she could hit the ball without moving, really not moving. That lasted two weeks. Last week, she started a bit of restricted movement, but with pain that made it clear she could not move like a normal tennis player. We did our best to not overload her leg. But despite all of that, she is not able to run today. If she runs with pain, that means there is a real danger of aggravating the injury. That also means she can’t train at 100 percent. But the most important thing is not that she isn’t ready but that if she plays, she is risking her future.”

Williams’s announcement leaves the U.S. Open without three of the sport’s biggest stars. Roger Federer, 40, and Rafael Nadal, 35, have withdrawn and ended their 2021 seasons because of injuries. This is the first time since 1997 — nearly a quarter-century ago — that the U.S. Open — or any Grand Slam tournament — will be played without at least one of the three.

End of an era? It certainly appears that way, although Martina Navratilova, the former No. 1 who is now a Tennis Channel analyst, believes it may not be the end of all three players’ triumphs on the court.

“I think Rafa has a much better chance of getting healthy, and he’s younger also,” Navratilova said on Wednesday. “If the foot heals up, he’ll be good to go. But with Roger and Serena, I think they’ll still play. I don’t think we will never see them play a match again, but I just don’t know what level they can get to.”

Williams, like Federer and Nadal, is one of the greatest champions in tennis history. She has often overpowered the opposition with her intimidating serve and returns. But her chances of winning a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title appear increasingly slim. She will turn 40 in September, and her ranking has slipped out of the top 20.

“Serena has won 23 majors, period, end of story,” Navratilova said. “She’s still Serena. I don’t think winning 24 makes her any greater. The fact she’s trying is to be commended. The people saying she shouldn’t have tried because she’s just hurting her legacy, they are full of it. My goodness. The only people who never fail are the ones that never try.”

Navratilova won her ninth and final Wimbledon singles title in 1990 at age 33 but played on until she was 49, winning the mixed doubles title with Bob Bryan at the 2006 U.S. Open.

“I won my last Wimbledon on bad knees, and I wish I had gotten them fixed sooner, just like I’m sure Serena wishes she had gotten the hamstring taken care of sooner,” she said. “When the body doesn’t let you do what you know you can do that’s the most frustrating thing. If you’re just not good enough you can accept that, but when your body is kind of sabotaging you, that is a heartbreak.”

Williams’s future in the game remains unclear. She returned to the tour after childbirth with the goal of winning more major singles titles and surpassing Margaret Court’s longstanding record of 24. Williams last won a Grand Slam title in January 2017 at the Australian Open, defeating her sister Venus. Her only tournament title in the last four and a half years came in a lower-tier event in Auckland, New Zealand, in January 2020. She will fall out of the top 40 when the rankings are updated after the U.S. Open and will most likely not be seeded if she returns for the 2022 Australian Open.

Mouratoglou said that there had been no discussion about retirement and that he would probably speak to Williams about her future in a few weeks.

“She still wants to play and still loves to play,” Mouratoglou said.

Matthew Futterman contributed reporting.