Venus Williams joins China Open injury list
Venus Williams has withdrawn from the China Open, with the world No. 3 reportedly suffering from a knee injury.
The 30-year-old’s withdrawal follows that of sister and world No. 1 Serena, who has been kept out of action with a foot injury since winning Wimbledon during July.
Also missing from the draw are US Open champion Kim Clijsters (foot) and Justine Henin, whose season has been ended by an elbow injury.
The 30-year-old Williams had also been troubled by knee issues in the lead-up to the US Open, and arrived at Flushing Meadows without a match to her name since her Wimbledon quarter-final exit, but reached the semi-finals despite her limited preparations.
While the draw, which was announced today, will be missing some big names, it still features 16 of the world’s top-20 ranked players including top seed Caroline Wozniacki, who will head to Beijing after she plays Elena Dementieva in the final of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Saturday.
Wozniacki, Dementieva and today’s beaten Tokyo semi-finalists Victoria Azarenka and Francesca Schiavone all receive byes into the second round.
Defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova returns as the 10th seed, and has been drawn to play a qualifier in her opening match.
Another previous winner in the draw, 2008 titlist Jelena Jankovic, has drawn Czech Klara Zakopalova in her first-round match. Playing in her first tournament since losing in the third round of the US Open, Jankovic will be looking to put a disappointing summer behind her with a strong showing here.
Doing so, however, could prove to be a tough task for the Serb, who sits in the same quarter of the draw as Azarenka and 12th seed Maria Sharapova, who will no doubt be keen to bounce back from her upset defeat by Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm in her opening match in Tokyo, a tournament that she’s won in 2009.
Seeded second for the tournament is Vera Zvonareva, and the Wimbledon and US Open runner-up has been handed a potentially tricky first-round match against former world No. 1 Dinara Safina.
Safina has struggled to regain her 2009 form since returning from a back injury earlier this year but nonetheless has the potential to cause an upset against her Russian counterpart, an opponent against whom she holds a 6-4 win-loss record in their past matches.
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