VIENNA, Oct. 11 -- US tennis star Serena Williams has been forced to withdraw from the WTA tournament in Linz starting Monday where she had been hoping to make her comeback from injury, organisers announced.
Williams has been sidelined since July with a foot injury she picked up after standing on broken glass in a Munich restaurant, shortly after winning her fourth singles title at Wimbledon.
Although the American had said she had been given "full clearance" by her doctor, tournament organisers announced that her planned arrival in the western Austrian city on Sunday morning had been postponed because of "a physical problem" which surfaced during her final training session.
The 29-year-old preferred to undergo further medical tests before travelling to Austria and later announced that she would not be competing.
A comeback at the modest, 220,000 dollar Linz tournament would have allowed Williams get herself in condition for the Masters in Doha at the end of October which is played on the same surface.
Williams will lose her world number one spot when the latest WTA rankings are published on Monday, after Danish 20-year-old Caroline Wozniacki secured top spot by reaching the quarter-finals at the Beijing tournament. Published by HT Syndication with permission from EKantipur.com. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
