Williams to rest knee ahead of French Open

World number two Serena Williams remains confident she will be fit to compete in the French Open despite withdrawing from the Madrid Open today with a knee injury.

World number two Serena Williams remains confident she will be fit to compete in the French Open despite withdrawing from the Madrid Open with a knee injury.

Williams, seeded second here behind Dinara Safina, made the decision to pull out after losing the first set of her match against Francesca Schiavone 6-4 yesterday afternoon.

The 27-year-old American, who won her 10th grand slam singles title at the Australian Open earlier this year, said the problem had been bothering her for a few weeks but should not affect her participation at the upcoming French Open.

"No, it's not going to stop me from playing in Paris," said Williams.

"I didn't want to risk my chances to play Roland Garros. I wanted to do well (here), but at the end of the day I'm trying to play Paris and still trying to play singles and doubles there so I didn't really want to take that chance and be out of Roland Garros.

"My movement was hindered. I don't know how serious it is but I don't want it to get worse. Obviously there's a major grand slam coming up."