Injured Serena pulls out
SERENA WILLIAMS was left insisting she will be ready for the French Open later this month, despite pulling out of a tournament yet again last night. The American’s promising return to action on Monday was followed by her withdrawal from the Italian Open with the recurrence of a left knee injury. It will raise further alarms that her body is increasingly struggling to cope with the demands of top-level tennis. This is the third time in the four events she has played this season that she has been unable to complete a tournament. At Indian Wells in March she retired during her match citing a virus, while later in the month she scratched from her third round at the Miami Open with the initial knee problem. Williams said: ‘I must withdraw due to pain in my left knee. I’ll be concentrating on rehab and look forward to seeing you all at the French Open.’ British No 2 Cam Norrie’s good week in Rome, in which he came through qualifying, ended in the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Croatian 13th seed Borna Coric. Meanwhile, Serena’s fellow 37-year-old Roger Federer described as ‘strange’ the decision to more than double the cost of tickets to see him play today to more than £100. ‘I heard some fans clearly were not happy about it. That’s obviously disappointing to hear,’ said the Swiss, who only made it public he would be playing the event last Saturday.