Tennis: Seles retires injured

Monica Seles may finally have an operation on her shoulder after was she was forced to retire from the Chase Championship in New York yesterday because of the injury which has troubled her all year.

The world No 2 retired from the pounds 1.25m season-ending event at 4-5 down in the first set of her first-round match against Japan's Kimiko Date, after an ice bag on her sore left shoulder failed to alleviate the pain.

"There were a couple of shots that made it even worse, and the pain just started shooting down my arm. All you can really do is ice it and numb it at that point," Seles said.

The muscle tear in her shoulder has bothered Seles since her Australian Open victory in January, which was her only Grand Slam title of the year although she did reach the US Open final, losing to Steffi Graf.

After Seles left the court, Graf showed no mercy towards her Slovakian opponent, Karina Habsudova, overpowering her 6-1, 6-4 in 48 minutes.

Seles' withdrawal put the 26-year-old Date's retirement on hold. The Japanese player now meets the 16-year-old Swiss girl Martina Hingis in the quarter-finals in what is her last tournament as a professional player.