\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles,\u201d says Serena Williams
\n LONDON
\nSerena Williams\u2019 Wimbledon comeback is over after the American legend pulled out of the doubles due to a knee injury on Saturday.
\nWilliams and her sister Venus were due to play in the first round on Saturday, but Serena announced just hours before the match that her knee had not healed enough to play.
\n\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles,\u201d the 44-year-old said on Instagram.
\nSerena, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, suffered the injury during her defeat against Australia\u2019s Maya Joint in the first round of the Wimbledon singles on Tuesday.
\nThat was her first singles match since the 2022 US Open after four years in retirement.
\nThe sisters, who won the Wimbledon doubles six times, were scheduled to face Solana Sierra and Camila Osorio after being given a wild card entry into the event.
\nBut no court was specified by tournament organisers in the order of play, raising the possibility that seven-time Wimbledon singles winner Serena could withdraw.
\nTo the disappointment of her legion of fans, Serena did just that, revealing the fluid on her injured knee made it impossible to continue her sensational return to Wimbledon.
\n\u201cComing back to compete again has been a gift, and the opportunity to play alongside Venus once more meant the world to me,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI did everything I could to be ready, but unfortunately my knee just isn\u2019t ready to compete.
\n\u201cThe photo of the syringes shows the fluid they drained from my knee after my singles match…yikes!\u201d
\nSerena made an astonishing return to tennis at Queen\u2019s Club last month, where she played in the doubles with Canadian Victoria Mboko.
\nBut an injury to Mboko curtailed Williams\u2019 run in the Wimbledon warm-up event after the pair won their first match.<\/p>\n
\u2018Stay tuned\u2019
\nSerena then crashed out in the first round of the Berlin doubles with Karolina Muchova before accepting Wimbledon\u2019s offer of a wild card into the singles last week.
\nSerena had been motivated by a desire to play in front of her two young daughters Olympia and Adira, but they saw their mother feature in just one match at Wimbledon.
\nSerena competed gamely in her three-set defeat against Joint — a player 24 years younger than the American — on a packed Centre Court.
\nShe did not fulfil her scheduled post-match press conference and her agent later said that was due to the knee injury, setting off speculation she would have to quit the doubles.
\nWilliams posted footage of her limping in a heavy bandage, as well as some syringes full of fluid, as she confirmed her withdrawal.
\n\u201cThe good news is my knee shouldn\u2019t swell or collect that much fluid again. The bad news is that, as hard as I tried, I just wasn\u2019t able to get it ready for doubles,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI\u2019m especially grateful to tournament director, Jamie Baker, and the entire tournament team for giving me every opportunity to play here.\u201d
\nNow questions will be asked about her ability to recover in time for the US Open later this year, while it is far from certain how much longer Serena\u2019s comeback tour will last.
\nHinting she is not finished yet, Williams said: \u201cThank you to the fans for your incredible support and for making this comeback so meaningful. All I can say is stay tuned to a city near you…\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken to have to withdraw from doubles,\u201d says Serena Williams LONDON Serena Williams\u2019 Wimbledon comeback is over after the American legend pulled out of the doubles due to a knee injury on Saturday. Williams and her sister Venus were due to play in the first round on Saturday, but Serena announced just hours before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n