The 34-year-old is coming off a brilliant 2015 season which saw her win the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon – taking her tally to 21 grand slam singles titles – before a surprise defeat in the U.S. Open semifinals.
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Williams injured her knee, but had practiced ahead of the opener that had been scheduled for her to play Ukraine’s tennis player Elina Svitolina in a match during mixed-team global competition in Australia’s Perth Arena.
The world No. 1 yesterday pulled out of the mixed-teams Hopman Cup in Perth due to a knee problem – just a day after refusing to rule herself out of the tie against the Czech Republic. “I just have some inflamma tion that’s been going away very slowly”, she explained.
She said: “I hurt my forearm in practice a couple days ago and need to precautionary withdraw with the Australian Open starting soon”. “I’ll see how I feel tomorrow and literally take it a day at a time”.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if Serena Williams didn’t already take three months off to fix it.
Meanwhile, former world number one Victoria Azarenka demolished Russia’s Elena Vesnina at the Brisbane International yesterday to set up a second-round showdown with top seed Simona Halep.
But the player said she hoped to be fit to play in the United States’ second tie against Australia Gold, one of two teams representing the hosts, this evening.
Ivanovic was beaten 7-5, 6-4 by British qualifier Naomi Broady, who fired 14 aces and won 74 percent of points on serve.
Fifth-seeded Sloane Stephens of the U.S. beat Polona Hercog of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3 and Latvian wild card entry Jelena Ostapenko beat No 56 Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-1, 7-5.
Andy Murray recorded a 6-2, 6-2 win over Kenny De Schepper to give Britain a 1-0 lead over France in the night match.
Despite not ruling out that she will play again on Thursday, the organising committee of the tournament confirmed her withdrawal.
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However, Wolfe said it was merely precautionary after feeling a slight twinge in the area.
