Venus Williams reveals 2024 tournament where she is ‘targeting’ return
Venus Williams has updated fans on her recovery process, after a knee injury called a premature end to the former No.1’s 2023 season.
Williams had planned to play a fuller schedule this year, after failing to win a WTA match for the first time in 29 years in 2022.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion made a positive start to the year, after beating Katie Volynets in Auckland, but obtained an injury in her following match that forced the American to withdraw from the Australian Open.
FOREVER VENUS ✨
Starting her 27th WTA season in Auckland, Venus Williams, 42, has claimed her 1st victory since 552 days and Wimbledon 2021. Amazing!
(📸 @ASB_Classic) pic.twitter.com/3TYJtMpqTi
— We Are Tennis (@WeAreTennis) January 2, 2023
The 43-year-old did not return until the grass court season, when she picked up her second win of the year in a three-set thriller against Camila Giorgi in Birmingham.
However, Wimbledon did not go to plan, with Williams slipping and injuring her knee in the first round match against eventual semi-finalist Elina Svitolina.
Williams has now detailed this experience on her YouTube channel, “I went to Wimbledon and sadly slipped in the third game of the match and really got injured. I spent the whole summer pretty injured with my knee, like really struggling with it.
“I didn’t want to miss the US Open, made it there, but definitely not my best performance after so much time off after Wimbledon. So, I decided not to play anymore the rest of the year and just give my knee a chance to heal.”
Despite beating a top 20 player for the first time in four years in Cincinnati, Williams fell to her heaviest singles defeat at the US Open against Greet Minnen.
The world No.413 had entered the WTA 250 tournament in Monastir, Tunisia, that included a return to the doubles court with Ons Jabeur.
However, Williams elected to withdraw and call an end to her season, and has confirmed that she won’t be playing at the Australian Open next year.
The American has now detailed the pain she has endured with her knee, “What was super interesting is once I just sat down, I felt better, I would say. After the US Open, I would say maybe like four weeks later I got up, I remember it was a Sunday and I got up and I was like ‘Oh my God! I’m not in pain’.
“Just like pain from sitting around, like my knee hurts, my knee is swelling every day. It’s very difficult to play tennis or any sport when you have like the swelling cycle when your body won’t stop swelling.”
As Williams looks ahead to her 30th season on the WTA Tour, she has revealed when she is likely to return, “I am targeting March, that’s when the tournaments go back to the States, so my goal is to be up and running when tournaments come back to the US, I tried my best to recover for the US Open. I did not reach my form so now I am just resting until I get back.”
March is the month of two American WTA 1000 tournaments, with the sunshine double of Indian Wells and the Miami Open taking place.
Inside the baseline…
Venus Williams has won nearly everything there is to win and has a healthy bank account, so it is clear that at this point in her career she is just playing for her love of the game. Although the 43-year-old only played 10 matches this year, there are still signs of vintage tennis against the likes of Camila Giorgi and Veronika Kudermetova. Hopefully, Williams can have a more injury free 2024 season.
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