Serena Williams withdraws from Rogers Cup for personal reasons

Serena Williams, of the United States, returns the ball to Johanna Konta, of Britain, during the first set of a match at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic tennis tournament in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, July 31, 2018. Konta won 6-1, 6-0. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

Tennis superstar Serena Williams announced Saturday that she is withdrawing from Rogers Cup for "personal reasons."

The 36-year-old Williams was the runner-up at Wimbledon last month. That was just her fourth tournament since returning to the tour after having a baby in September and dealing with a health scare related to blood clots.

However, the 23-time singles Grand Slam champion was defeated by Johanna Konta at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic on Tuesday.

"We are obviously disappointed that Serena cannot join us - the fans were eager to see her in action." Eugene Lapierre, director of the Rogers Cup, said in a statement issued by Tennis Canada.

"On the other had, once this disappointment has passed, we have to look at the whole tournament - which still has some of the world's top 10 players," the statement reads.

It did not include a quote from Williams, who was scheduled to arrive in Montreal Saturday morning.

Due to the impromptu withdrawal, German player Tatjana Maria will skip qualifying rounds to take Williams' place in the main draw, facing off against French player Alize Cornet.

Williams is the fifth player to drop out since the beginning of the week - after Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova, American players Madison Keys and Coco Vandeweghe, and Canada's Bianca Andreescu.

The tournament's main draw begins Monday.