Venus injury ends hope of all-Williams final

Venus Williams was forced out of her WTA Tour Championship semi-final against Kim Clijsters on Sunday with a leg injury -- ending the prospect of an all-Williams final.

Williams appeared on court with her left calf and ankle heavily strapped and it quickly became clear that the world number two was moving badly as fifth-seeded Clijsters surged into a 5-0 lead.

During the change over Williams limped to her chair calling for the trainer and after a brief conversation walked over to shake the Belgian's hand.

It marked only the second time in her career that she had retired from a match through injury.

"I twisted my ankle during my quarter-final with Monica (Seles) and I didn't really feel the affects until last night," said Williams. "I was sitting in bed thinking my leg is hurting.

"A lot of the time if you have an injury, with the adrenaline and everything, you don't feel it much. But I wasn't able to move much and change direction effectively.

"I just discussed with the trainer about what I could do, maybe tape it further, but I was already taped to the max.

"There just wasn't much I could do."

Venus's injury was a blow to a tournament which has been plagued by poor attendances. It had been expected that Venus would meet world number one sister Serena, who was playing Jennifer Capriati later, in the final of the WTA's showcase event.

RIDING THE MOMENTUM

Even without the injury, Williams knew she was in for a difficult afternoon against Clijsters, who was riding the momentum from victories in two of her last three tournaments and appeared to be one of the few women in the elite 16-player field fit and motivated for the $3 million extravaganza.

With Williams stuck to the baseline and clearly unable to chase down shots, Clijsters blasted away at her opponent, dropping just six points in the five games.

"I didn't know before the match that she was injured but once play started I saw she was not moving as well as she normally does," said Clijsters.

"It's not like this is a small tournament so I knew she must have had a pretty serious injury.

"So I was surprised. It's never nice beating a player who has to retire. I think the crowd was here to see two singles matches.

"Right now it's really hard for me to believe I am in the final."

Also read: Serena fights back against Capriati to reach final