Serena Williams

While Swiatek will aim for her second Grand Slam title of the year after clinching the French Open title as part of an incredible 37-match winning streak, Serena, who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, will enter the tournament with a protected injury ranking of No.16.

Serena, a seven-time winner of the Australian Open, revealed that she was not fit to compete at the first Grand Slam of the upcoming season. "While this is never an easy decision to make, I am not where I need to be physically to compete. I will miss seeing the fans, but am excited to return and compete at my highest level.

The 39-year-old had suffered a leg injury after slipping on Centre Court against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round of Wimbledon in June. After retiring from the match at 3-3 due to the injury, Serena hasn't played on the tennis circuit.

The WTA confirmed on Tuesday that the "The ITF (International Tennis Federation) has published the final entry list. The final entry list has 15 of the WTA Top 20 confirmed for Tokyo, including World No.1 and Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty and world No.2 and Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka. The field also features the top nine players on the Porsche Race to Shenzhen."

"I'm actually not on the Olympic list, not that I'm aware of," Serena said on Sunday, a day before the scheduled Wimbledon start. "If so (if I am on the list), then I shouldn't be on it. There's a lot of reasons that I made my Olympic decision. I don't feel like going into them today. Maybe another day. Sorry. In the past, the Olympics have been a wonderful place for me.

The women's draw was released on Friday even as defending champion Simona Halep announced her withdrawal due to a calf injury. Ashleigh, who is a one-time Grand Slam winner at 2019 French Open and has never proceeded beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon, is drawn to face current French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova.

Serena, winner of three French Open titles with the last coming in 2015, won 75 per cent of the points on her first serve and said afterwards, "I felt it was pretty good today. I've been practicing my serve a lot. I've been playing in practice unbelievable on my serve. The other night (first-round match against Romania's Irina Begu) was, wow. I'm glad it came better today.

Danielle, a French Open quarter-finalist last year, dropped just two games against Ukrainian qualifier Anhelina Kalinina, 6-0, 6-2, to halt the qualifier's 14-match winning run. Spain's world No. 35 Paula Badosa joined the American duo in the third round after beating Montenegro's Danka Kovinic, 6-2, 6-0 in just 52 minutes.

The 25-year-old had defeated Japan's Naomi Osaka at the French Open in 2019. Earlier, No. 2 seed Petra Martic of Croatia and No. 3 seed Coco Gauff of the US got their Parma campaigns off to winning starts with contrasting first-round wins. Petra continued her resurgence with a fine display against Varvara Gracheva

In another interesting quarter-final match-up, No. 1 seed from Australia, Ashleigh Barty could face Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the Stuttgart and Madrid Open finals. Serena, a four-time champion in Rome in 2002, 2013, 2014 and 2016, will be competing for the first time since her Australian Open semi-final loss to Osaka.