It appears there will be no Williams sisters at the 2023 Australian Open. On Saturday, tournament organizers announced that Venus Williams, who earned a wild card berth for the first major of the year, suffered an injury in a recent competition in New Zealand and won't be healthy enough to participate in Melbourne, per ESPN.
This would've been Williams' 22nd Aussie Open after making her tournament debut in 1998 at the tender age of 18. The 42-year-old is far from the same player of the past and has a difficult time making it further than the first couple of rounds of tournaments nowadays. Nevertheless, it's an unfortunate turn of events because this was potentially the last chance for Venus to compete Down Under. You'd have to believe retirement isn't too far off after Serena called it quits last year following an epic run at the US Open.
While it's unknown what type of injury Venus Williams is dealing with, it appears it happened at the tourney in Auckland, where she won her first-round match before losing to China's Zhu Lin in the second round. Venus is a two-time finalist at the Australian Open and coincidentally enough, was bested by Serena on both occasions in 2003 and 2017.
With Venus now ranked outside of the top 1000 in the WTA rankings, it'll be difficult for her to qualify for any Grand Slams without a wild card berth.
Williams is a seven-time majors champion, winning Wimbledon five times and the US Open in back-to-back years in 2000 and 2001, all before her 22nd birthday.