Sania Mirza has pulled out of January's Australian Open after being troubled by an injury to her right knee.
The Indian, who quit singles in 2013, won the womens doubles title at Melbourne alongside Martina Hingis in 2016 but lost out on the mixed title a year later, going down to Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal when playing with Croatian Ivan Dodig.
"I have something that's called a jumper's knee, it's extrmely painful," the 31-year-old said. "I am okay to walk but it's painful to change directions and play. That's the biggest problem. I can run straight but I can't actually do plyometric stuff on it.
"When I spoke to my doctor a couple of months ago, they told me to take a couple of months off, then see how it feels before getting into a process of either surgery or injections.
“So when I saw them, the pain wasn't less after two months. Now we have to take a call whether we have to do a surgery or take a couple of injections. So it's a little up in the air.
"I can't tell you a definitive when but it won't be before the next couple of months at least," the 31-year old former doubles World No.1 added. "Hopefully I'll be healthy again."
