Venus Williams has confirmed that she will not compete at the
Australian Open in January 2024 as she revealed her plans for a comeback in spring.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion had a tough season this year, failing to make it past the second round of any tournament. She was forced to be absent for several months at the start of 2023 after picking up an injury at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
The 43-year-old returned at the Libema Open in June, where she lost to Celine Naef in the first round. She then competed at
Wimbledon, a Slam that she won five times between 2000 and 2008.
Although she made a strong start to her opening match against Elina Svitolina, she suffered a hard fall early on and subsequently lost in straight sets.
In August, Williams lost to Madison Keys in the first round of the Canadian Open. Still, she pulled off an impressive win against sixteenth seed Veronika Kudermetova at the Cincinnati Open before being defeated by Qinwen Zheng in the second round. She last competed at the US Open, where she was beaten by Greet Minnen 1-6, 1-6.
Williams hoping "to be up and running" by March
In a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Williams revealed that she was still recovering from her fall at Wimbledon and will be taking some time to recover before hopefully returning to the
WTA Tour in March 2024. This means that she will not be present as a wild card at the Australian Open in January.
"I had a crazy fall at Wimbledon. I just slipped and I was out. I tried my best to recover for the US Open. I did not reach my form so now I am just resting until I get back. I am targeting March, that's when the tournaments go back to the States, so my goal is to be up and running when tournaments come back to the US," she wrote.