Serena Williams To Skip Australian Open 2018
Serena Williams has already confirmed she will not be joining this year's Australian Open tennis tournament.
The 2018 Australian Open begins this month, and while most of the tennis players from last year are coming back, the defending champion in the Women's Singles division will not.
Before 2018 arrived, Williams was in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where she joined and lost an exhibition game against the French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
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After the match, Williams said in a statement: "After competing in Abu Dhabi I realized that although I am super close, I'm not where I personally want to be."
She explained: "My coach and team always said, 'Only go to tournaments when you are prepared to go all the way.' I can compete -- but I don't want to just compete, I want to do far better than that and to do so, I will need a little more time."
"With that being said, and even though I am disappointed about it, I've decided not to compete in the Australian Open this year," Williams added.
The said friendly match between Williams and Ostapenko occurred just four months after she gave birth to her first baby with husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
Williams won the 2017 Australian Open Women's Singles division after facing her sister, Venus Williams. Now that she has withdrawn from the tournament, the championship trophy is up for grabs.
Meanwhile, after winning the 2017 Australian Open last year for a Grand Slam title, Williams only needs one more victory to have the same record as tennis athlete Margaret Court, who was able to bag 13 wins out of her 24 Grand Slam matches.
Apart from Williams, another Australian Open veteran, Andy Murray, has also withdrawn from the tournament due to a severe hip injury.
The 2018 Australian Open begins on Jan. 15 and is slated to conclude on Jan. 28. The matches will happen in the Melbourne Park sports complex in Victoria, Australia.
