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STANFORD (California) - TOP seed Serena Williams was forced to retire with a knee injury down 6-2 3-1 against Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak in the semi-finals of the Stanford Classic on Saturday.
Wimbledon finalist Williams took a medical time-out to receive treatment when she was down 5-2 in the first set, but it made no difference as she was unable to put her weight on her left leg and finally gave up.
A disappointed Williams said: 'I expected to win this tournament and have a strong start (to the hard court season).
'My goal was to win here and I think I would have done it otherwise.' Wozniak, who will play in her first Tier II final on Sunday, faces the winner of the semi-final between sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France and Japan's Ai Sugiyama.
'It's my biggest final and I'm really happy the way I've been playing because coming up from the qualifying its not easy because it's a lot of matches,' the 85th-ranked Wozniak said.
Williams said she first started feeling pain in her morning practice.
'After I got off it was really swollen,' she said.
'I've been playing a lot of tennis so I think that's what it is. When you have inflammation in a joint it's hard to move. Wozniak kept moving me and I was hoping she wouldn't.' Williams said the pain was not in the same area of the left knee where she had surgery in August 2003.
Instead of taking a week off after reaching the Wimbledon final on July 5 which she lost to sister Venus, Williams decided to play four matches in the World Team Tennis league.
She believes the switch of surface from softer grass to hard courts may have affected her, but would not say the extra week of Team Tennis was a bad decision.
'You know that risk going into it. I can't blame that. I've been playing a lot of tennis for me since Miami (in March).' Williams was unsure whether she would be able to compete in next week's Los Angles Classic, but said that being fit for the Beijing Olympic Games was her top priority.
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