Summary Caroline Wozniacki cut her finger badly with a bread knife during WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai.
HONG KONG (AFP) - Caroline Wozniacki lamented her "shitty" recent few months on Thursday after an unlucky incident involving a bread knife brought her season to an abrupt halt.
The former world number one was trailing Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 2-2 at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, southern China, when she retired and later withdrew from the tournament.
According to the WTA Insider Twitter account, Wozniacki cut her finger badly with a bread knife from room service and was unable to hold her racquet properly, prompting the wrist injury.
"It s been a really, really frustrating, shitty second half of the year. Basically just been falling apart physically," she was quoted as saying by the WTA-linked account.
Denmark s Wozniacki, 25, won in Malaysia during a positive start to the season but highlights have become few and far between as the year unfolded.
She isn t the only star to fall foul of room service this week -- coincidentally her former fiance, golfer Rory McIlroy, went down with food poisoning from a club sandwich in Shanghai.
Wozniacki s withdrawal could also affect Kuznetsova s chances of qualifying from Group D, as she was relying on the world number 17 beating Roberta Vinci on Friday.
In Wozniacki s absence, Italy s Vinci will play alternate Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, the world number 28 from Slovakia.
Earlier Venus Williams came from a set down against Chinese number one Zheng Saisai to become the first player to reach the semi-finals at the tournament s inaugural edition.
Williams, the top seed and seven-time Grand Slam winner, was stunned in the first set by 75th-ranked wildcard Zheng before she hit back to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in Zhuhai, southern China.
"You could see that she played amazing and she really is a future champion," Williams said, according to the WTA website.
"First set, wow, she played so well until the last point. She definitely deserved to get the wildcard into this tournament -- she has a lot of talent and there are definitely great things for her in the future."
In Group C, Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova beat Italy s Sara Errani 6-0, 6-3.
