Serena raises eyebrows and frustrations on her persistent withdrawals from tournaments

Some call her ‘the queen’, others call her other names, but she has been the reigning iconic tennis star for the WTA  for decades; her blistering serves, those hard to get to crosscourts; on the court she is a lioness and the opponent is her prowl; her strokes sting and bite and she has been known for making her opposition on the other side of the net either scared or brave that when they come off from playing her, they will be a better player just being able to return those shots. The years of play tend to wear down any player and Serena’s no different. The sicknesses and injuries are nagging and disgusting at times but the young girl and her older sister from Compton, California, who learned on the mean courts of a neighborhood not know for their country club ‘sit back and have a refreshment after tennis’ mantra was never discouraged from playing this sport.

It might have started last year that Serena didn’t just retire at some matches because of the ailments but started withdrawing. First, it was last year, 2015 The Dubai tournament, the next month she retired from Indian Wells during the match with a sprained right knee. She had spoke of the injury happening while serving on practice courts and felt a sharp pain in her knee. She had mentioned of receiving many injections for the pain. It was a few months later in July she withdrew from a Stanford event saying that she will be ‘back to 100 percent’ to play. It was after the ‘Golden Slam’ hype went down on Serena with Roberta Vinci’s win over her, that the withdrawals started coming in a fury. In October it was from a Rome, Bastad and Beijing tournament and also the WTA Finals in Singapore. Serena has said that “It’s no secret …

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