Serena Williams will have to hold off her pursuit of Margaret Court’s Grand Slam titles record after being forced to withdraw from the 2020 French Open.
Williams was set to have a second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova on Wednesday morning, but experienced issues with her Achilles during the warmups. After brief consideration, the 39-year-old champion decided she can’t proceed and dropped out.
Williams initially injured her Achilles during her semi-finals loss to Victoria Azarenka at this year’s US Open. The current No.9 tennis player in the world hoped she would have enough time to heal before Roland Garros, but the strain turned out to be more serious than it was originally thought.
“I think I need four to six weeks of sitting and doing nothing, at least two weeks of just sitting down,” said Williams at a press conference following her withdrawal.
There is a good chance that this was the last tournament appearance for Serena Williams in 2020. When asked about her plans for the rest of the year, Williams said that its “more than likely” that she won’t make more appearances.
This is the second time for Williams to pull out of the French Open, as she withdrew from a fourth-round match against Maria Sharapova in 2018 due to a muscle injury. She has three Roland Garros titles, with the last one being in 2015.
