World No. 1 and six-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams pulled out of the Swedish Open with an elbow injury on Thursday and set her sights on recovering for the US hard-court season.
The 33-year-old was set to play Klara Koukalova in the second round, having defeated Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium 6-2, 6-1 in her opener on Wednesday, at the clay-court event she won in 2013.
“I was having some pain in my right elbow,” Williams said.
“I felt it a little bit in my match yesterday, and then it got better, but then this morning I really couldn’t hit serves, and if I’m not able to hit serves that could definitely be a problem,” she said. “So I talked to my coach about it and we were like, ‘Let’s see what the doctor says, and see what everyone else says, and go from there.’ The main thing is that we don’t want it to get worse, we obviously want it to heal”
“Unfortunately I haven’t had time to heal. I’ve been going, going, going, playing tournaments I love, and coming here has been such a great joy, but unfortunately it’s not going to heal if I keep playing,” Williams added.
Williams swept to a sixth Wimbledon title on Saturday last week, her 21st career major and her third in three Grand Slam events this year.
If she defends her US Open crown in September, she will become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to complete a calendar Grand Slam.
“I’m going to take some time off, I’m going to get some treatment and I’m going to continue to do things for it. I’ll do what’s best for my body and continue from there,” Williams told www.wtatour.com.
Williams is scheduled to play in Stanford, Toronto and Cincinnati before the US Open.
Elsewhere in Bastad on Thursday there were wins for third seed Barbora Strycova who beat Evgeniya Rodina 6-4, 6-1, Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson seeing off sixth-seeded Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) and Yulia Putintseva defeating French qualifier Alize Lim 6-0, 1-6, 6-2.
The last match of the day saw seventh seed Johanna Larsson edging Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-3, 7-5.
BUCHAREST OPEN
Unseeded Danka Kovinic of Montenegro reached the Bucharest Open quarter-finals for a second straight year when she upset fourth seed Julia Goerges of Germany 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-2 on Thursday.
Kovinic, the first Montenegrin woman to make a WTA quarter-final two years ago in Budapest, made the last eight for the third time this year in a match of long rallies over nearly three hours.
To reach her first semi, she will have to go past seventh-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia, who overpowered Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2.
Second-seeded Roberta Vinci lost in a second straight tournament to Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, 6-1, 6-1. Krunic also prevailed against the Italian in the first round at Wimbledon.
Also, Andreea Mitu beat wild card Sorana Cirstea 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, in a match between two locals featuring 16 service breaks.
Local favorite Monica Niculescu, the third seed, defeated Teliana Pereira of Brazil 6-2, 6-3, saving all nine break points she faced, and Anna Tatishvili of the US advanced when fifth-seeded Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania retired while trailing 5-2.
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