PERTH (Australia), Dec 8: US Open winner Serena Williams has withdrawn from next month’s Hopman Cup mixed teams event with a hamstring injury, the organisers said here on Monday.

The world number two injured her hamstring in the year-ending WTA Championships and has not been able to recover in time to prepare for the Perth tournament, although she still intends to play the Australian Open later in January, the organisers added.

World No 10 James Blake will now be partnered by Meghann Shaughnessy, who last year played in the Hopman Cup and defeated Sania Mirza of India.

Shaughnessy, winner of six singles and 15 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, has had an injury-plagued year but the US will remain the top seeds for the Jan 3-9 event.

Russian star Marat Safin has shelved retirement plans team up with his sister Dinara Safina.

Teams:

US (Meghann Shaughnessy/James Blake x1).

Russia (Marat Safin/Dinara Safina x2).

France (Alize Cornet/Gilles Simon x3).

Australia (Casey Dellacqua/Lleyton Hewitt x4).

Italy (Simone Bolelli/Flavia Pennetta x5).

Germany (Sabine Lisicki/Nicolas Kiefer x6).

Slovak Republic (Dominika Cibulkova/ Dominik Hrbaty x7).

Taiwan (Su-Wei Hsieh/Lu Yen-Hsun x8).—AFP