Serena Williams withdraws from Hopman Cup because of knee injury
Wednesday 6 January 2016 12:29, UK
Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Hopman Cup because of a knee injury and will not play in the USA's final match on Thursday.
The world No 1 missed the first match of the round-robin tournament and then retired during the second set of her clash against Australia's Jarmila Wolfe on Tuesday.
Williams revealed she was struggling with inflammation of her left knee but did not immediately rule herself out of Thursday's clash with the Czech Republic.
However, tournament organisers announced on the event's Twitter feed on Wednesday that Williams had indeed withdrawn and would be replaced by Vicky Duval.
The United States have lost both their matches so far and cannot reach the final of the international mixed team competition at Perth Arena.
The injury must be a concern for Williams with less than two weeks to go until she begins the defence of her Australian Open title.
The 34-year-old brought an early end to her 2015 season partly because of pain in her knees after seeing her Grand Slam dreams ended by Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals.
