
Serena Williams announced that she will be withdrawing from the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, citing recovery from the injury she sustained at Wimbledon in June.
The 39-year old slipped on the grass in her opening round match at the All England Club, injuring her ankle in the process. She has not competed in any events since then, and there is now doubt as to whether she will compete in any warm up events ahead of the US Open, which begins at the end of August.
"Unfortunately, I will not be playing in the Western & Southern Open next week as I am still in recovery from my leg injury at Wimbledon," said Williams in a statement. “I will miss all of my fans in Cincinnati whom I look forward to seeing every summer. I plan to be back on the court very soon.”
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Joining the 23-time Grand Slam champion on the sidelines is sister Venus Williams, who also recently announced that she would not be competing at the event. Additionally, World No.4 Sofia Kenin also released a statement saying she'd be skipping Cincinnati, with the hope of getting more rehab as she recovers from an injury.
“Unfortunately I had to make the difficult decision to withdraw from the Western & Southern Open next week,” said Kenin. “I am rehabbing well in hopes to play the U.S. Open later this month. I feel another week of recovery is necessary.”
The Western & Southern Open runs from August 14-August 22, 2021, with the US Open kicking off a week later.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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