Serena in doubt for Australian Open after injury to ankle

Five-time champion Serena Williams is in doubt for the Australian Open after injuring her left ankle and withdrawing from the Brisbane International yesterday.

In her first tournament since losing the US Open final in September, Williams was serving for the match with a 6-2, 5-3 lead against Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia when she twisted her ankle and crashed heavily to the court.

The 13-time Grand Slam winner lay near the baseline for several minutes while getting medical attention. She was helped to a court-side chair and had the ankle re-taped before resuming the second-round match and losing the next point to surrender a service break to Jovanovski.

Williams limped through the next game, wincing in pain after at least two points, before securing a 6-2, 6-4 win to advance to the Brisbane quarter-finals in her first trip Down Under since winning the 2010 Australian Open.

She withdrew from the Brisbane tournament later yesterday after having medical scans, which “confirmed that I have a left ankle sprain [and] that I probably shouldn’t play on.”

“I’m going to take a couple of days off – not too many – and see how I feel,” Williams said in a statement. “I’m still hopeful of playing the Australian Open.”

US Open champion Sam Stosur was eliminated in the match on centre court immediately before Williams went on, but the other results were overshadowed by the injury to Williams, who hobbled into a post-match news conference with her ankle strapped and initially said she was “anticipating it’ll be OK.”

“I’m always thinking I can play on, but at the same time I don’t want to stress it out right now,” Williams said.

The scans showed otherwise, casting serious doubt over her fitness for the first major of the season with only two matches in four months to base a Grand Slam preparation on. Her scheduled quarter-final rival, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, advances directly to the semis.

The Australian Open starts on 16 January in Melbourne. Williams missed the 2011 Australian Open while recovering from operations on her foot and blood clots in her lungs that kept her side-lined for about a year after Wimbledon 2010.

She won two tournaments heading into the US Open in August but, after losing the final to Sam Stosur, Williams didn’t play another tournament last year due to injuries.

Williams said her first thought when she collapsed near the baseline yesterday was “not again.” “That’s what I felt,” she said. “I was like, ‘no way.”’

Williams usually wears a protective guard on her left ankle, but took it off during the second set because it was irritating another minor injury on her foot.

Stosur lost to Iveta Benesova 6-4, 6-2 to extend her run of never advancing beyond the second round at her home tournament. It was the 28-year-old Benesova’s fourth win over a top-ten player. The No. 54-ranked Czech had never taken a set off Stosur in four previous matches but now finds herself in a quarter-final match against Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters.

“Hopefully it was just a bad day and I will bounce back next week and the week after,” Stosur said of her Australian Open preparations. “I don’t want to dwell on it.”

Sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic, of Serbia, beat Russian Nina Bratchikova 6-3, 6-2, and Kaia Kanepi, of Estonia, ousted seventh-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, of Russia, 6-0, 6-3.