Back Spasm Misery Continues For Serena Williams at Western & Southern Open 2019

Published 08/14/2019, 5:21 AM EDT

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World Number eight, Serena Williams retired from the WTA final in Toronto due to back spasms. Right after her withdrawal from the Rogers Cup 2019 final, Serena flew to Mason, Ohio for the Cincinnati Open 2019.

However, her back spasms were prevailing in the Ohio event and consequently, she withdrew from the tournament. “I came to Mason (Ohio) on Sunday and have tried everything to be ready to play tonight, and was still hopeful after my practice this morning,” Serena Williams said. “But unfortunately my back is still not right.”

In the first half of the season, Serena Williams retired from all the non-Slam WTA events. She participated in Indian Wells, Miami, and Rome and all her withdrawals were due to her knee injury, but now her back is creating an issue.

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At French Open, she won two matches and a few weeks later, she lost in the Wimbledon finals. After playing four games in the Toronto final, where Serena reached her first non-Slam since her title win at Italian Open 2016, the 23-time Grand Slam champion landed up receiving the runners-up trophy in a substandard manner and broke down when she was forced to retire from the match. 

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Following to her back-to-back withdrawals, this intimidates Serena’s run at the US Open 2019. This year, she will be completing 21 years of singles tennis at Flushing Meadows and the American has thrice missed the tournament in her career. 20 years ago, Serena lifted her first Grand Slam title as a teenager at US Open 1999 with more two decades of longevity she still perseveres to hold the title in the Auther Ashe Stadium.

Her last year’s final match against Naomi Osaka turned out to be an infamous championship match and the Japanese went on to lift her first Grand Slam title.

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Since her Australian Open 2017 title, Serena Williams has not lifted a title on the WTA Tour, she has reached the finals four tournaments, but she has been unsuccessful in the claiming the final match. Despite not winning a title for almost 31 months now, Serena dwells on the top-ten rankings of the WTA list.

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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