Dinara Safina retires from Australian Open fourth round

Second seed Dinara Safina was forced to retire from her fourth-round match against Russian compatriot Maria Kirilenko at the Australian Open on Sunday.

Safina was trailing 30-40 while serving at 4-5 in the first set when she went to hit a forehand, shook her head and told the umpire she could not continue.

It was not immediately clear how the world number two had injured herself, but she was clearly limping and appeared to grasp her right thigh as she walked off the court.

She then sat on her chair before shaking hands with Kirilenko, who will now meet China's Zheng Jie in the quarter-finals.