Serena unlikely to play Wimbledon warmup, says coach

PARIS (Agencies): Serena Williams is likely to go into Wimbledon without playing a warm-up event because she is still injured, her coach Patrick Mouratoglou has told Reuters.

After a third-round exit at the French Open, Williams said she felt so short in matches, she was considering seeking a wildcard at one of the grass-court events and ‘see what happens’. Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, and her older sister Venus, a five-time winner at the All England Club, usually prepare for the world’s only grass-court Grand Slam event at home in Florida.

“I don’t know yet, I don’t think so, because first the goal is for her to be injury-free and pain-free and then we need to work hard, so if she can play, great (but) I don’t know if she can play,” Mouratoglou said in an interview at Roland Garros, when asked if Williams would play a warmup tournament.

The Wimbledon Championships start July 1. Williams last played an event before Wimbledon in 2011, when she entered Eastbourne after an 11-month injury break for a foot injury, during which she also had surgery for a pulmonary embolism on her lung. “She’s a bit injured so we need to solve the problem, because there is a double problem,” said Mouratoglou, who has guided the 37-year-old American to 10 Grand Slam titles since they started working together in 2012. “The first problem is that she can’t prepare the proper way because of the injury, and the second thing is that she is playing with the pain, so we have to solve that,” the Frenchman added.