Henin-Hardenne and Clijsters cancel Aussie Open.

Henin-Hardenne, who didn’t play most of the 2004 season due to a virus, told tournament director Paul McNamee she was going to leave for Europe. McNamee said Henin-Hardenne had injured her knee during a practise session in Florida last month.

Kim Clijsters made her decision official Thursday the 6th. Being the losing finalist last year Clijsters wants to take no risks starting too early again with her injured wrist. She had made a start after surgery earlier last year during the Gaz de France in Hasselt. This turned out to be too soon, her wrist was again hurting and she had to withdraw from her home tournament.

If the rehabilitation goes to plan she will make her comeback at the Proximus Diamond Games of Antwerp in February. Being the title defender she can count on a wildcard.

Justine Henin-Hardenne made her comeback after she had overcome a virus just before the Olympics in Athens. After winning the gold medal she was forced to pull out of the WTA Tour competition with the illness caused by the cytomégalovirus again.

Henin-Hardenne had a pain in her right knee she felt every once in a while. “Yesterday, she trained for 45 minutes without any problems, but after a return on her serve, she was in great pain. It’s a small bone fracture which luckily didn’t hit the knee", her coach Carlos Rodriguez specified.

“She’ll be back in three weeks, they told us that we could stay in Sydney to go to Melbourne next week in case she doesn’t feel anything anymore. But we don’t want to take any risks, we will go back to Belgium to ask a second opinion of the doctors there and she won’t be training for another three weeks. After that, we will look and see whether the injury has disappeared or not, and whether we can resume training or not,” Rodriguez added.