Just a day after making international headlines for revealing she didn’t “love tennis”, Serena Williams turned over on her left ankle last night in Brisbane forcing her out of the tournament.
The 30-year-old Williams was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set against Serb Bojana Jovanovski when the injury occurred.
Following treatment Serena continued finishing off the Serb 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals. But hours later, with her ankle swollen she announced that she had withdrawn from the tournament.
“I have been to hospital and it has been confirmed that I have a left ankle sprain that I probably shouldn’t play on,” Serena said. “I’m going to take a couple of days off – not too many – and see how I feel. I’m still hopeful of playing the Australian Open.
“It was such an unexpected end to the tournament; I didn’t expect to be getting an MRI today,” she said. “I’ve had a great time here in Brisbane – the tournament is great, the fans are fantastic and hopefully I’ll see them again next year.”
Earlier in the week after her first round win Serena curiously said that she doesn’t like athletics in general:
“I mean, I don’t love tennis today, but I’m here, and I can’t live without it. So I’m here and don’t want to go anywhere anytime soon … It’s not that I’ve fallen out of love; I’ve actually never liked sports, and I never understood how I became an athlete … I don’t like working out, I don’t like anything that has to do with working physically … Anything that involves sitting down or shopping I am excellent at that.”
Serena was playing her first tournament since her US Open final loss to Sam Stosur. Serena missed the Australian Open last year because of a foot injury and later missed part of the 2011 season due to an embolism.
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