Russian world number eight Svetlana Kuznetsova is battling an abdominal muscle injury ahead of next week's Australian Open after pulling out of the Sydney International.
Kuznetsova, the tournament fifth seed, pulled out before her quarter-final giving Japan's Ai Sugiyama a walkover into the semi-finals against second seed Dinara Safina on Thursday.
The 2004 US Open champion strained her abdominal muscles during the third set of her second round victory over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi on Tuesday, but woke today in discomfort.
'Yesterday I managed to finish and win the match. I went to warm-up today but it's been worse,' Kuznetsova said.
'I've had this injury before and I played with not such a strong serve and still managed to play. But I don't see the point of doing this, because injury got worse.'
The Russian said she had some time to be fit to play in next week's grand slam.
'You never know. I'll do my best to recovery. I will try to be fit for Australian Open,' she said.
'The physio is telling me to rest two days and not to do anything. Stretch it a lot and do treatment.
'Then I'll start to play little by little. I'll have a scan on site tomorrow to figure out what I have wrong and see how it can be managed and cure this problem to be better for Melbourne.
'I have four days, and I'll have to take it easy and to see how it can be.'
