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Serena Williams withdraws from French Open

By Vincent Ashitey
The 23-time Grand Slam champion will take no further part in the tournament
The 23-time Grand Slam champion will take no further part in the tournament
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Serena Williams has withdrawn from the French Open ahead of her second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova due to an Achilles injury.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion was scheduled to meet Pironkova on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday morning but pulled out ahead of the contest.

Williams went into the tournament managing an Achilles problem that she sustained at the US Open and was not been able to recover sufficiently after her 7-6 (7-2) 6-0 first-round victory over Kristie Ahn.

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The 39-year-old took to court for her warm-up however quickly realised that she would not be able to compete.

"After I warmed up - it was a very short warm-up - I talked to my coach and I was like, 'What do you think?'," she said.

 

"We both thought about it and we really realised that it likely wasn't the best for me to play today.

"I love playing in Paris, I really wanted to give an effort here. My Achilles didn't have time to properly heal. I'm struggling to walk so that's kind of a tell-tale sign that I should try to recover."

Skysports