A tearful Serena Williams wept as she took a chair, retiring four games into her match against Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu in the Rogers Cup final Sunday in Toronto and raising questions about her fitness for the U.S. Open.
As Williams wept after calling a medical timeout, the 19-year-old Andreescu bent down to hug her. A trainer approached as a mic picked up Williams saying she had back spasms. She was down a break and the match was all of 16 minutes old.
Williams continued to weep as she addressed the crowd in Toronto after the match. She apologized and vowed “to keep going.”
“I’m not a crier, but, thank you, guys,” Williams told the crowd. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it today. I tried, but I just couldn’t do it.”
The match followed the Friday semifinal between Williams and Naomi Osaka, the first match between the two since Williams’s emotional outburst in their U.S. Open final in September. Williams won this time, 6-3, 6-4. She was attempting to win her first tournament since giving birth in September 2017.
The U.S. Open starts Aug. 26, giving the 37-year-old Williams a little more than two weeks to get on track.
The Rogers Cup was Andreescu’s first tournament since May.
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