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SERENA and Venus Williams withdrew from the women’s doubles competition at the Australian Open yesterday before the first-round action got underway. Tennis Australia, which handles all of the withdrawals for the tournament, was unable to provide a reason why the 13-time grand slam and three-time Olympic champions were unable to play their match against the 11th seeds, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova.

Irina Falconi and Petra Martic took the Williams sisters’ place in the draw, though they were beaten 6-3, 6-3 by the Spanish/Kazakh pairing.

Medina Garrigues and Shvedova will now face either the pairing of Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson or Mirajana Lucic-Baroni and Lisa Raymond.

Both Serena and Venus play their second-round singles matches today. — The Guardian