NEW YORK: Serena Williams won’t be chasing a 24th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open, but with her 40th birthday only a month away, she will be starting perhaps her greatest challenge in closing out her career on her own terms. Williams revealed Thursday she would miss the New York hardcourt showdown with a torn right hamstring suffered in a first-round match last month at Wimbledon. “After careful consideration and following the advice of my doctors and medical team, I have decided to withdraw from the US Open to allow my body to heal completely from a torn hamstring,” Williams posted on Instagram. Williams, whose 23 Grand Slam singles crowns are one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record, will be battling back from injury at an age when most players have retired. The American star is already the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam singles crown, taking the 2018 Australian Open title at age 35 while pregnant before taking a year off to give birth to daughter Olympia. She suffered a pulmonary embolism after delivery and was bed-ridden for six weeks but battled back to world-class form, reaching the 2018 and 2019 finals at Wimbledon and the US Open, and until now hadn’t missed a Grand Slam start since her motherhood hiatus. —agencies
