Serena Williams had all the intention to try to win the Roland Garros especially after she was stopped in the US Open final 4 by her friend Vika Azarenka. Unfortunately, Serena got injured in the New York semifinal to her Achilles and that proved to be more serious than initially thought.
Soon after the American slam, Serena flew to her coach’s premises (the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy) in the south of France where she mostly rehabbed. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time and she had to start the training soon after, but that was a bit too early. Serena tried to play the French slam, but she had to pull out before playing the 2nd round.
It’s a serious injury. MOURATOGLOU
During a recent interview, Serena’s coach Parick Mouratoglou explained why it didn’t make any sense for Serena to keep on trying playing with that sort of injury to say:
“We had only one week to do all the treatment because the second week we had to start practice to be ready for Roland-Garros. It was not enough, the inflammation was big. It was more or less under control even though it was painful but when she played her first match at Roland-Garros the pain went to the next level.”
Therefore, Patrick explained why they made the choice to withdraw to say:
“So we felt it was the only possible decision. At her age, taking the risk to break an Achilles tendon is not reasonable and plus, you feel like she’s not able to win the tournament not moving normally. At some point it’s better to stop and accept that the body says stop. Take the four, five, six weeks to heal, which will be necessary, then come back to practice and be ready for 2021. It’s sad but we have to accept it.”
Patrick also wrote the following message on Instagram saying:
“Paris, on reviendra.
We did everything we could, but health must come first. Thank you @rolandgarros for hosting the event this year. It’s just a “see you later.” Time to recover and prepare for the next one.”
Serena Williams in 2020
Currently the world no.9, Serena Williams was supposed to play on the 30th of September. However, she conceded a walk over to Tsvetana Pironkova in the 2nd round of the French Open.
During this season the American has a 17-5 win-loss record. Serena has won 1 title in Auckland.
