“I am targeting March, that’s when the tournaments go back to the States, so my goal is to be up and running when tournaments come back to the US,” she said. “I tried my best to recover for the US Open. I did not reach my form so now I am just resting until I get back.”

The former World No. 1 uploaded a video to her YouTube channel updating fans on the tumultuous year she has had. After six months out, she returned to action on the grass courts at the Libema Open in June, beating Camila Giorgi in a classic match at the Birmingham Open before losing to Jelena Ostapenko.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion struggled with injury throughout the season

Her stay at Wimbledon was a short one as she succumbed to Elina Svitlona in the first round, and appeared to slip and injure her knee during the contest. Venus recovered and played at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open a month later, but decided to end her season after a heavy defeat to qualifier Greet Minnen in the first round of the US Open.

Reviewing her summer, Williams said: “I went to Wimbledon and sadly slipped in the third game of the match and really got injured. I spent the whole summer pretty injured with my knee, like really struggling with it.

“I didn’t want to miss the US Open, made it there, but definitely not my best performance after so much time off after Wimbledon. So, I decided not to play anymore the rest of the year and just give my knee a chance to heal.