Serena Williams: World No. 1 skips Beijing and Singapore tournaments

Serena Williams cut her season short after officially pulling out from next week’s China Open and the season-ending tournament in Singapore. Williams said that her decision to skip the tournaments in Asia was due to health reasons.

“I’m a fierce competitor and want to compete as well as I can for as long as I can,” Williams announced on Thursday in a statement posted on China Open’s official website. “I am taking a proactive step and withdrawing from tournaments in Beijing and Singapore to properly address my health and take time to heal.”

Williams said that she had played injured for the most part of her triumphant yet challenging season. She withdrew from Bank of the West Classic in August to heal the right elbow injury that also forced her out of the Swedish Open. Earlier in March, Williams also pulled out of her semifinal match of the BNP Paribas Open due to a knee injury.

The 34-year-old, who won three of the grand slam tournaments, hinted that she struggled to come into terms with her failure to win the last grand slam tournament of the season. Williams lost to unseeded Roberta Vinci in the semifinal at Flushing Meadows, which ended her bid to also complete a Calendar Slam.

Williams further said that she intends to return to training at the latter part of the year. She said that she will be taking part in exhibition matches. She also hopes to be fully prepared as she embarks on another season next year.

Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou previously revealed in an interview with ESPN that his most prized pupil was extremely heartbroken after losing the opportunity to win her fourth grand slam this season. He hinted that Williams wanted to sit out the remainder of the tournaments this year as she was not fully motivated to compete. She was down with her loss to Vinci at the 2015 U.S. Open.

“Any loss is very painful for her, but this one even more than usual, so it just takes time to recover from it,” Mouratoglou said. “When the motivation comes back, which I don’t doubt it will, then it will be time to start tournaments again.”

Williams is set to take part in the second edition of the International Premier Tennis League. She represents the Philippine Mavericks, joined by two-time grand slam Aussie champion Mark Philippousis and fellow tennis stars Sabine Lisicki, Australian Jarmila Gajdosova, Richard Gasquet and Milos Raonic. The team tennis event will run from Dec. 2 to Dec. 20, 2015.

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