Injured Serena pulls out of Australian Open

Serena Williams. Pic/AFP

Not long after Serena Williams's name was absent from the entry list for the Australian Open, she confirmed the obvious: the seven-time champion won't play the 2022 edition of the season-opening major in January.

Williams, 40, hasn't played since retiring from her first-round match at Wimbledon with a right hamstring injury and her ranking has slipped to No. 41. She won the last of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles at the 2017 Australian Open. The Australian Open's website on Wednesday said Williams would not compete in Melbourne "following advice from her medical team."

Novak Djokovic was on the men's entry list at No. 1 in a further indication that he'll be playing at Melbourne Park beginning Jan 17 despite strict regulations requiring all players, officials and fans to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

Also Read: No one-day wonder here! Ex-selectors feel Rohit Sharma replacing Virat Kohli was 'logical'

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever