Is Serena Williams playing at Australian Open in 2023?

The Australian Open kicks off on January 16, and it will take place without Serena Williams there. The tennis great announced that she would be stepping away from the sport in 2022, and while she won’t use the word “retirement,” we can expect not to see her back on the court for a while, if ever.

Williams won the Australian Open seven times in her storied career — 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2017. The 23-time Grand Slam winner fell in the third round of the 2022 U.S. Open in her final game before leaving tennis.

The 21-year-old Iga Świątek takes the No. 1 seed heading into the Australian Open and is a +225 favorite to win the tournament at DraftKings Sportsbook. One of the sport’s brightest rising stars, Świątek reached the semifinals in last year’s Open in Melbourne. She already has French Open and US Open championships under her belt, and she’ll look to take home a new Grand Slam.