Injured Pierce quits Australian Open

Former champion Mary Pierce's injury nightmare continued on Monday when she retired from her Australian Open first round match after pulling a stomach muscle.

The French wildcard was trailing 4-0 to American Jill Craybass when she was forced to stop.

Her withdrawal made the 1996 champion the third high-profile name to pull out of the tournament on its opening day. Earlier, defending men's champion Andre Agassi and women's fifth seed Serena Williams withdrew without hitting a ball.

Agassi is suffering a wrist injury picked up last week at Kooyong while an ankle injury sustained in Sydney last week kept Serena out of the draw.

Pierce missed most of last year with back problems and tendinitis in her ankles.

After a promising return to fitness, she arrived in Melbourne again under an injury cloud.

Last week she injured her ankle at the Tasmanian International and before that she had strained her hamstring at an exhibition in Hong Kong.

"I've got an abdominal strain. It was first game 40-30...I missed my first serve and something felt funny. When I hit my second serve that's when I felt a sharp pain," she said.

"I called the trainer because it was impossible for me to serve. The trainer came out and we spent what felt like about 10 minutes trying to find a place where she could examine me.

"We couldn't find anywhere private which we needed to because my dress is one piece and to examine me I had to take it off.

"So she taped it and it felt better...but still it was the serve that was bothering me. Every time I reached up I could feel pain. Finally it got too bad and I just had to quit."

Pierce said the injury was probably a legacy of having spent so much time off the tour last year.

"I spoke with a couple of other players in the locker room and they told me it takes a while trying to come back from a long lay-off. I guess your body is stressed one way for matches and practice is not the same.

"But I felt fine...it was really just one serve which seems weird to me."

Pierce said she had been told by a doctor she will be out for two to four weeks.