A few days ago I did a brief preview on where the top men will be competing this summer. I didn’t add the women for the very reason that the top tier simply don’t play many of US Open lead-up events. As evidence this morning, Wimbledon winner Serena Williams has announced that she will miss all summer events prior to the US Open because of foot surgery.

Serena won Wimbledon two weeks ago, then played an exhibition in Belgium against Kim Clijsters that Thursday. Somewhere in between the World No. 1 cut her upper right foot on glass apparently at a restaurant. Now the mysterious injury, which already forced her out of World Team Tennis, requires surgery ending her hopes playing before the US Open.

“I’m so upset that I won’t be able to play in the upcoming events because of this foot surgery,” said Williams in a statement. “Thank you for all of your support and I can’t wait to get back on the courts.”

Serena is still scheduled to play at the US Open but she will miss the Istanbul, Montreal and Cincinnati tennis events.

Serena took some PR hits earlier in the week and at least one writer is calling her bluff.

And we’ve seen this routine in women’s tennis before: skip the smaller events, focus on the Slams.

But now that she’s having surgery the injury must be (somewhat) serious. I just hope it was worth it for her to stay in Europe after Wimbledon to participate in that Belgian exo. Remember she only played as a fill in for Justine Henin (Gulp!) who hurt her shoulder at Wimbledon. Oh the irony.

UPDATED WITH POST-SURGERY TWITTER PHOTO:

Filed under: Injuries, WTA
Tags: Serena Williams