Injury an Achilles heel for Williams

ANOTHER chance to clinch a record-equalling 24th grand slam has disappeared for Serena Williams, who yesterday pulled out of the French Open.

The American sustained an Achilles injury during her recent semi-final defeat at the US Open and pulled the plug in Paris ahead of a scheduled second-round clash with Tsvetana Pironkova.

Williams said: ‘After I warmed up – it was a very short warm-up – I talked to my coach and I was like, “What do you think?”. We both thought about it and we really realised that it likely wasn’t the best for me to play today.

‘I love playing in Paris, I really wanted to give an effort here. My Achilles didn’t have time to properly heal. I was able to get it somewhat better but, just looking longterm in this tournament, will I be able to get through enough matches? I don’t think I could.

‘I’m struggling to walk so that’s kind of a tell-tale sign that I should try to recover.’

Williams (pictured) estimated she needs four to six weeks to heal, and the 39-year--old will now focus on Janu-uary’s Australian Open, when she will continue her pursuit of Margaret Court’s record in much warmer temperatures.

She added: ‘This is nott a nagging injury, this is an acute injury. I feel like my body is doing really, really well and I just ran into bad timing and bad luck in New York. Achilles is a real injury that you don’t want to play with because that is not good if it gets worse. I’m so close to some som things, so I feel like I’m almost there. I think that’s what keeps me going.’