Serena Williams Aims To Play Singles Event Before Us Open, Says Coach

Serena Williams hopes to play in a singles tournament before the US Open.

The 23-time grand slam champion returned to the singles court at Wimbledon last week after being given a wild card.

But Williams, 44, injured her knee during a narrow 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 first-round defeat by Maya Joint, a player 24 years her junior.

That injury ruled the former world number one out of the doubles event, which she was due to play with sister Venus, 46.

Williams only played doubles in the build-up to Wimbledon, with Victoria Mboko at Queen’s and Karolina Muchova in Berlin.

But her coach, Rennae Stubbs, confirmed the American superstar wants to play singles matches before her anticipated return to Flushing Meadows.

“Her thoughts are to try and keep going,” Stubbs said. “It’s all up to her. We assess everything that she wants to do now and based on what she wants to do.

“And you know, she’s got a lot of things to consider, her family, her businesses. But her goal is to keep going.

“If you had seen one thing about what we witnessed out there is how well she can still serve, how well she can still hit the ball.

“Having a few more matches under her belt certainly would have helped but she wanted to do that in doubles.

“It’s completely up to her and physically how she’s feeling, and we know that the knee has to settle down.

“But I know that for her, trying to play certainly something before the US Open will be something she would like to do.

“She doesn’t want to go and do what she did here, which is just play singles at the US Open. But at the same time, it’s going to depend on how physically how she’s doing.

There are WTA 1000 tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati in the run-up to the US Open, which begins on August 30.