Second-seeded Serena Williams withdrew from the WTA hardcourt tournament in Los Angeles on Tuesday with a left knee injury, hoping to be fit in time for the Beijing Olympics.

The world number five was the latest injury casualty for the tournament, which had already lost her elder sister Venus, Lindsay Davenport and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

"It’s a huge disappointment for me to be unable to play the East West Bank Classic in my hometown of LA," said Williams, who had a first-round bye and was replaced in the draw by lucky loser Melanie South of Britain.

"I’ve been getting intensive therapy and doing everything in my power to get my knee in shape for this week, waiting until the last possible moment to see if I could play," she added. "Unfortunately after hitting this morning, I knew that wasn’t going to be ready for this week."

On the court, sixth-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova made an early exit as second-round action got underway on Tuesday.

Hantuchova, trying to regain her form after battling a stress fracture in her foot earlier this year, was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Olga Govortsova of Belarus.

It marked the second week in a row that the Slovakian lost her opening match on California hardcourts, following her exit at the hands of Ai Sugiyama last week in Stanford.

Third-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze, 21, advanced with ease, downing Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-1 in the day's other second-round encounter.

In first-round action, American Vania King defeated qualifier Angela Haynes 6-3, 6-3 to set up a second-round clash with top-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic.

Jankovic, the world number two who has the number one spot of compatriot Ana Ivanovic in her sights, is also recovering from a knee injury — suffered at Wimbledon.

"I'm not 100 percent ready to play this week, but I will use this tournament as preparation and play as much as possible, hopefully, to get ready for the big tournaments," Jankovic said.

In other matches on Tuesday, 2007 runner-up Nadia Petrova of Russia cruised past compatriot Alina Jidkova 6-0, 6-4 in a first-round clash.

Petrova, seeded ninth, lost in last year's final to Ivanovic, who did not return to defend the title.

While Petrova produced a respectable quarterfinal effort at Wimbledon, she has yet to show much consistency this season.

She has gone without a WTA singles title since February 2007 at the Paris indoors.

Flavia Pennetta of Italy cruised past Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-0, bringing the Canadian's winning streak to an end.

Wozniak emerged from qualifying in Stanford last week and became the first Canadian to win a WTA title in two decades.

Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic also advanced to the second round, beating Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-1.

AFP