Serena Williams withdraws from French Open clash with arch-rival Maria Sharapova

Tennis champion, Serena Williams has pulled out of the French Open before her fourth-round match with arch-rival Maria Sharapova due to an injury.

The 23-time Grand Slam winner who had recently returned to tennis after giving birth to her first child, called a press conference today to talk about her decision, with reports in France claiming it could be an arm problem.

"I've had issues with the right pectoral muscle to the point where I can't serve," said the 36-year-old.

"The first time I felt it was against Goerges in my last match. I was like, oh my. It was really painful, and I didn’t know what it was. In my doubles I tried a lot of different tapings and different types of support to see how it would feel under match circumstance, and it didn’t get a lot better.

I’m going to stay here and see as many specialists as I can. There’s a lot of theories. I’ve never had this before. I’ve never felt this in my life, this is so painful. So I don’t really know how to manage it yet. When you do have an injury you’ve had before you can kind of manage it, but this is a little different. I’m clueless as to what to do. So I’m just going to do what the doctors think I should do, and get all the evaluations on it.

"I'll have a scan. I won't know about Wimbledon until I get the results."

The former World's No 1 who has fallen to 453rd in the world ranking, after taking time out to have a baby was aiming at fighting her way back to the top.