Despite being expected to make her return to tennis at the 2023 Australian Open, Venus Williams won’t be playing at the event.
Venus Williams hasn’t played much tennis lately due to her repeated injuries not allowing her to find herself in good enough health to compete at the level she wants to.
It’s annoying for the experienced American but hardly a surprise, considering her age and the wear and tear she accumulated over many years of playing. Her return was delayed for 2023, and it did happen as she played at the ASB Classic in Auckland, and she played very well.
In her first match back, Williams defeated compatriot Katie Volynets, who is a very good player. In the second match in New Zealand, the American faced Lin Zhu and nearly outplayed the Chinese player.
Williams won the opening set but then got beaten in the next two. Her next event after the WTA 250 tournament in Auckland was supposed to be the Australian Open.
She traveled to Melbourne, which many took as confirmation that she would indeed play at the event, but that changed. It’s been confirmed that Williams won’t be playing at the first Grand Slam of the season after all.
The reason why probably has something to do with some new injury that emerged in the meantime. Williams has dealt with many of them over the years. She got a wild card entry to avoid having to play the qualifiers and was largely expected to take part in the event, but unfortunately, something happened that derailed her plans.
She has yet to speak on the matter, but her return might likely take a while. Whenever a setback like this happened in the past few years, it’s usually been at least a few weeks, if not months, before she returned to the tennis courts.
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