Serena injures knee in semifinals

Serena Williams became the latest U.S. Olympian dealing with a knee injury as the Beijing Games approach.

She injured her left knee and pulled out of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford on Saturday, becoming the third singles player on the U.S. women’s tennis team to suffer a knee injury.

Williams retired from her match after losing the first set and falling behind in the second set of her semifinal against Aleksandra Wozniak.

“It was hurting in practice, and I didn’t really practice too long because it was hurting,” Williams said.

“After I got off, it was really swollen. I thought that I have to play really fast.”

She lasted only 46 minutes before pulling out of the match while trailing, 2-6, 1-3.

Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport, the other U.S. Olympic singles players, have already pulled out of next week’s East West Bank Classic at the Home Depot Center in Carson because of right knee injuries.

Serena Williams said she still plans to go to Carson but probably will have an MRI exam before then and could choose to rest up for the Olympics next month.

Wozniak will play in today’s final against sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli, who defeated Ai Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

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Top-seeded James Blake struggled after a rain delay and was upset by third-seeded Dimitry Tursunov, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Indianapolis Championships.

Tursunov will play second-seeded Gilles Simon in today’s championship match. Simon defeated fourth-seeded Sam Querrey, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Tursunov was leading Blake, 2-1, in the second set when rain forced a 32-minute delay.