Serena Williams is perhaps the greatest Tennis player of all time, but she will not be the greatest next month in Australia, as that title will go to someone else. That is because Williams announced on Wednesday that she will not be participating in the contest due to not being fully recovered from a hamstring strain at this year's Wimbledon. Per Williams, it is the advice of her medical team to not play next month, and it has her heartbroken, as you can tell from what she said earlier today:

“Following the advice of my medical team, I have decided to withdraw from this year's Australian Open,” adding “While this is never an easy decision to make, I am not where I need to be physically to compete, Melbourne is one of my favorite cities to visit and I look forward to playing at the AO every year. I will miss seeing the fans, but am excited to return and compete at my highest level.”Last year, Serena lost in the semifinals to Naomi Osaka and was hoping to come back and win the tournament for the eighth time. It is already an open-era record and is just four behind Margaret Smith Court for all-time in any era. Williams is also just one win behind court for the most all-time grand slam wins in Tennis history so she is surely itching to get back out there. her next chance to tie the record will be in late May at the French Open.