{blackbabes} Williams insists she won't retire

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Venus Williams insisted Friday she had no intention of retiring from tennis despite being forced to withdraw from her third round Australian Open match against Germany's Andrea Petkovic.

Williams, who injured the psoas muscle in her groin area during her previous match against Czech Sandra Zahlavova on Wednesday, decided after just seven points against Petkovic that she couldn't continue.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner had a poor lead-up to the Australian Open. She had not played a tournament since last year's US Open after developing tendonitis in her right knee.

Now 30, Williams said she didn't know when she would be able to return to the court, but added that when she did, she would be completely fit.

"When I come back to play next time, I'll be a 100 percent so I won't be back until whenever that is," she told reporters after the match.

But she stressed she would back.

"Well, I'm still pretty good, even when I'm injured," she said.

"I mean, at the US Open I came pretty close to winning that tournament just on a hope and a prayer and little to no preparation.

"Here, you know I was grinding. So I'm just going to focus obviously on getting healthy and coming back because I love tennis and I've got a lot of great tennis in me.

"I love my job, so no end in sight."

Williams conceded she had been hoping for a miracle when she took to the court against Petkovic.

"That (miracle) was in the back of my mind," she said.

"It's tough to come into a match not knowing what level you can give.

"So that was hard. Then to think about if I could last five more matches like that and what the future was.

"So it was really just one match at a time. Hey, can I make it one more match? Obviously I just couldn't."

Williams said she had tried to prepare herself for the match as thoroughly as possible.

"The last 48 hours I did as much pain management and recovery that I could," she said.

"You know, a lot of times when you play, you get this adrenaline that blocks pain, but I just didn't get enough of that today."

The retirement continues a miserable run for the older Williams sister in Melbourne—her best finish here was runner-up to sister Serena in 2003.

But she said knew immediately that she couldn't continue.

"I just obviously couldn't play. I mean, just couldn't move. Just too painful," she said.

"It's super-disappointing because this is just not how I envisioned my Australian Open being.

"I've never had to retire from a Grand Slam especially after working so hard to pull out the match the other day. Just hoping for some magic that I could recover.

"But I have peace of mind that I really gave more than my best to be out there."

It was further bad news for the Williams family—sister Serena has not played since cutting her foot in a Munich restaurant shortly after last year's Wimbledon.