After her 6-2, 6-3 loss to unseeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round of the Australian Open, Serena Williams says she would not have played the tournament had it not been a major. Williams, a five-time Australian champion, tore two ligaments in her ankle at the tournament in Brisbane two weeks ago.
"No, no way. I probably shouldn't have played. But no way,” Serena told reporters. "I never blame any injury that I have because I feel like she played really well and she deserved the win…Obviously I'm not 100 percent, and I haven't been. But it's no excuse."
Williams did add that she is planning on playing the United States’ Fed Cup tie against Belarus February 4-5 in Worcester, Mass. She said that she thinks her elder sister Venus, who has not played since the U.S. Open due to a battling an autoimmune disease, will be able to play.
"She's been training, so I think she'll be there," Serena said.
This is the first time that Serena has failed to advance to the Aussie Open quarterfinals since 2006. She said that she is thinking about adding another tournament to her schedule, but can’t find one that works. She is scheduled to play a tournament in Monterrey, Mexico in late February and also Miami. She has not competed at the tournament in Indian Wells since 2001 (which is between Monterrey and Miami) because she believes that she and Venus were subject to racist taunts by the crowd.
"I was just thinking I want to pick up a tournament because I did so awful here," she said. "There's no tournaments, unless I pick up Indian Wells, and we all know I'm not going there. It crossed my mind very briefly, like a nanosecond."
Williams could choose to play the tournament in Acapulco on red clay right after Monterrey, but does not think it’s a good option.
"I'm not that desperate," she said. "Maybe I'll just work out for a long time."—Matt Cronin