Serena to miss Australian Open

Serena Williams has announced her withdrawal from next month’s Australian Open, extending her absence from the sport that she long ruled.

“I am not where I need to be physically to compete,” Williams said in an announcement on Wednesday as the Australian Open released the list of entered players for the 2022 tournament.

Williams, a seven-time Australian Open singles champion, is now 40 years old and has not played on the WTA Tour since June 28, when she retired late in the first set of her opening round match at Wimbledon because of an injured right hamstring.

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The injury was slow to heal, and it also kept Williams from competing in this year’s United States Open. Williams did not mention the hamstring injury specifically in her statement on Wednesday, saying only that she had decided to withdraw because of “the advice from my medical team.”

While Williams confirmed her absence, the Australian Open said that Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 men’s singles player, was entered in the event, which is set to begin on Jan. 17 in Melbourne.

The state government of Victoria is requiring that all players be fully vaccinated to compete, and Djokovic has declined in recent weeks to reveal his vaccination status or confirm if he would play in the Australian Open, where he has won nine singles titles. But he is on the entry list, only a week after his father decried the vaccination requirement as “these blackmails and conditions” and suggested his son would not play.

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Williams said she was “excited to return and compete at my highest level,” but it is unclear when or if she will be able to achieve that goal.

Williams, ranked 41st, has not won a Grand Slam singles title in nearly five years: She captured the Australian Open in January 2017 when she was two months pregnant with her daughter, Olympia. She returned to the tour in 2018 after Olympia’s birth and remarkably reached the singles finals at Wimbledon and the United States Open in 2018 and again in 2019.