NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Eight-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams pulled out of the Bangalore Open tennis tournament on Saturday due to high fever, news reports said.

The Press Trust of India quoted unnamed officials as saying that Serena Williams failed to board a flight for Bangalore after suffering from a “bad flu.”

It was not immediately clear where Williams was taking the flight from.

The PTI quoted the organisers of the US$175,000 Bangalore Open as saying they were disappointed with Williams pulling out of the tournament. This would have been Serena Williams’s first visit to India.

Williams’s place in the main draw was awarded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia who was entered in the qualifiers that began on Saturday.—AP