Tennis superstar Venus Williams forced out of Adelaide International due to ongoing hip injury
Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams has been ruled out of the Adelaide International through injury. However, she will be replaced at the tournament by the world’s eighth-best player.
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The Adelaide International tennis tournament has been hit by a late big name withdrawal but remarkably will replace her with the world’s eighth-best player.
Doctors have told five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams that an ongoing hip injury means she is not ready to play competitive tennis until Monday next week at the earliest - a day after the $2 million Memorial Drive event begins.
Such is the strength of the WTA tournament, however, that Williams will be replaced by Switzerlands’s Belinda Bencic, which means that four of the world’s top eight women - Ash Barty, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova are the others - will play in Adelaide next week.
“Although I have done everything in my power to compete next week in Adelaide, I am disappointed that I have to withdraw from the tournament,” Williams said.
“Australia holds a special place in my heart, having played all over the country since the very beginning of my career.
“Although my time spent there will be shorter than expected this year, I share my continued support for Australia, who has shown incredible strength and perseverance during this difficult time.”
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Tournament director Alistair MacDonald said it was “sad” Williams had been forced out of the event through injury, and wished her “the very best for a speedy recovery”.
“She has been really keen to appear here before the Australian Open,” he said.
“We are really hoping she will be able to play here next year.”
The veteran Williams, who will turn 40 in June, had already withdrawn from this week’s WTA Brisbane International with the same injury.
“Belinda Bencic burst onto the scene when she was 17 and was set to be the next big thing,” MacDonald, a former head of the Sydney event, said.
“She played the qualifying for the Sydney International when she was 16 and we kind of looked after her.
“We look forward to welcoming her to Adelaide in the coming days.”
Bencic, 22, who won WTA tournaments last year in Dubai and Moscow, began playing tennis at a coaching camp run by the mother of three time Australian Open champion Martina Hingis when she was just three-years-old.
She will fly into delude from China where she has been playing the Shenzen Open as top seed this week before losing to Russian Anna Blinkova yesterday.