Serena Williams pulls out of Italian Open shortly before third-round match

Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Italian Open shortly before the defending champion was scheduled to face her fellow American Christina McHale in the third round.

In her opener on Tuesday, Williams cruised past the 39th-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour. Tournament organisers announced Williams’ decision to withdraw without explanation.

Her decision came soon after Andy Murray also pulled out of the tournament, the Scot citing tiredness after an unprecedented run of success on clay that finally caught up with him.

Murray said: “This morning I was pretty exhausted when I got up and then I came in to practise, did my 40-minute warm-up and felt extremely flat.

“I just was listening to what my body was saying, because I’ve played so much tennis – like nine matches in 12 days, also with a very physical schedule, and also a couple of doubles matches in there, as well as the whole preparation for this period. It’s been a very long three weeks for me, the longest I’ve ever had on clay in my career. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”