Venus Williams Withdrawals from Wimbledon due Back Injury

The 2013 Wimbledon Championships won’t count with one of its most popular players and five-time champion: Venus Williams. The 33-year old player, who hasn’t missed a tournament since her debut in 1997, announced her withdrawal on Tuesday due a back injury.

This will be only the third Grand Slam event in the last decade that Williams misses, having previously outing from the 2011 French Open and the 2012 Australian Open. But despite Venus’ withdrawn, sportsbettors and tennis fans looking for the latest Wimbledon Odds can still visit Sportsbettingonline.ag and get some tennis action before the tournament kicks off.

Williams has struggled with back problems since last year, but the problem became more evident in early April when she was forced to pull out of Madrid.  More recently, Venus was eliminated from the French Open when she suffered a first-round defeat to Poland's Urszula Radwanska. Williams, who said her back troubled her during the match, also pulled out of the doubles with her sister Serena to let her back heal.

The injury became an issue in recent weeks; in fact, the seven-time Grand Slam Champion was forced out from the 2013 Miami Masters in the third round due to a lower back pain.

 “Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in Wimbledon this year. I am extremely disappointed, as I have always loved the Championships, but I need to take time to let my back heal. I look forward to returning to the courts as soon as possible” wrote the five-time Wimbledon champion in a statement posted on her Facebook page.

Currently ranked No. 34, Williams has won five Wimbledon singles titles, in 2000-1, 2005 and 2007-8. Venus also lost three times in the final to her younger sister Serena. Ranked No. 1, Serena is the top favorite to win her sixth Wimbledon title and 17th major title in her career. Serena has won 31 matches in a row, the longest single-season streak in the tennis world since Venus put together a 35-match run in 2000.