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Caroline Wozniacki faces a race to be fit for the US Open after being forced to retire from her New Haven semi-final against Maria Kirilenko.
The former world number one was the four-time defending champion in New Haven and has not lost a set in the event since 2010.
However, Wozniacki picked up a knee injury in her quarter-final and it was obviously still bothering her against Kirilenko as she lost the first set 7-5 and then called the trainer onto the court.
Wozniacki had never lost in the tournament having won all 20 matches since making her debut as an 18-year-old in 2008, but was forced to retire after the knee became too much to handle.
She now faces an anxious few days as she tries to get fit in time for the start of the US Open in New York on Monday.
"I could feel it from the start," she said. "But, you know, it just started to get a bit worse. I decided to stop because if you don't feel a hundred percent, you can't compete at a hundred percent. It's better to let it rest. I wasn't going to win this match anyways if I'm not on a hundred percent fit level."
Wozniacki added she only played after doctors said she would not make the injury any worse - and she was keen to join Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Chris Evert as the only players to win the same tournament five consecutive times.
"You know, you defend it again and again, all of a sudden you're in this elite group that has won a tournament four times," she said. "I mean, there's a lot of players that never win a tournament and there's a lot of players that never win four. Winning the same one four times in a row is definitely special."
Kirilenko admitted that she could see Wozniacki was struggling from the other side of the net, and feels she made the right decision.
"She was fighting," Kirilenko said. "She was running. When I hit a great shot, she couldn't run for it. She made the right decision. She has to take a rest before the US Open."
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