By Etienne Stekelenburg
May 9 2004

Venus Williams withdrew from the Ladies German Open final in Berlin due to her ankle injury she picked up in her semi final match against Karolina Sprem. Williams final match opponent Amelie Mauresmo will play an exhibition match against Anastasia Myskina. Williams ankle injury has gone worse overnight and came on court with crutches. “At yesterdays match I sprained my ankle and I thought I was ok for the next four point, but last night I woke up with one good foot and one bad foot”, Venus Williams explained on court before the ceremony.

Williams said it was important to keep fit for the French Open, “because I have been down and out for so long”. Yesterday she said she was in anticipation and extremely motivated to play the final. Today showed that Venus Williams was not able to play. She didn’t expect her foot would turn out like that. She never had an ankle injury as bad as this but she is hoping to get fit for the French Open.

Amelie Mauresmo said that at the beginning of the week she was not sure if she was going to play in Berlin. She was having back injury problems but as the week progressed that was getting better.

Mauresmo earns another 300 points for the ranking and 189.000 US dollars. She was very disappointed that she didn’t have to play for her title. She was told in the morning that she didn’t have to play final after she had seen Williams twisting her ankle yesterday.