Venus Williams and Hailey Baptiste withdraw from French Open women’s doubles
PARIS: Venus Williams will not play in the women’s doubles at the French Open alongside Hailey Baptiste. They withdrew on Thursday and no reason was given by organizers. But Baptiste was forced to retire during her second-round singles against Wang Xiyu on Wednesday after landing awkwardly on her left leg late in the first set. The Americans were replaced by Eudice Chong and Veronika Rejvec in the draw. Williams, who turns 46 next month, was a singles wild-card entry at the Australian Open. She lost in the first round and became the oldest woman to compete in an Australian Open singles main draw. A seven-time major singles winner, Williams previously held the No.
