{"id":4991,"date":"2026-01-02T18:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=4991"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:45:24","slug":"heather-watson-to-miss-australian-open-as-she-returns-to-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=4991","title":{"rendered":"Heather Watson to miss Australian Open as she returns to training"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Heather Watson has confirmed she will miss this month’s Australian Open but says she is on course to return from injury by the end of February.<\/b><\/p>\n

The 33-year-old has slipped to 269 in the world and ninth in the British rankings having been out since late August with a tendon issue in her glute – her first major injury in a 17-year professional career. <\/p>\n

She last played in the first round of qualifying for the US Open, having lost in the first round at Wimbledon on 1 July. <\/p>\n

Watson, who won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2016 and reached the women’s doubles quarter-finals two years later, has recently resumed training.<\/p>\n

In a post on Instagram from Florida, where she is taking part in winter training, Watson said she is looking forward to getting back to action.<\/p>\n

“I’ve really missed my purpose, and the everyday challenge tennis gives me,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I cannot wait to be back on tour competing again. Hopefully if all goes to plan, at the end of February.<\/p>\n

“Missing Australia this year has really hurt my heart, but also lit a fire inside me.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Heather Watson has confirmed she will miss this month’s Australian Open but says she is on course to return from injury by the end of February. The 33-year-old has slipped to 269 in the world and ninth in the British rankings having been out since late August with a tendon issue in her glute –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}