Tennis-Dokic withdraws from Hobart, to decide on Open qualifying

HOBART Jan 8 (Reuters) - Former world number four Jelena Dokic pulled out of the Hobart International with an ankle injury on Tuesday and is still to decide whether she will attempt to qualify for next week's Australian Open.

Dokic, who had beaten three players in the world's top 100 in qualifying and the first round at Hobart, was down 5-0 to Italy's Flavia Pennetta in their second-round match when she called for the trainer.

The 24-year-old, who received courtside treatment but was unable to continue, later said she had sustained the injury in qualifying on Sunday and played with it in her first round victory over Martina Mueller on Monday.

"I had a good run here and I felt like I was playing well, but against someone like her you need to be able move so much more," Dokic told reporters after her retirement.

Dokic, who did not receive a wild card from Australian Open organisers and was considering whether to play the wildcard qualifying tournament beginning on Thursday, said she would need to see how her ankle responded.

"It's not something that's really serious, so hopefully it will settle down. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

"I'll have to make a really hard decision on Thursday."

In other matches on Tuesday, Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva beat Romania's Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-3 6-2, while Eleni Daniilidou of Greece provided the upset of the day with a 6-3 6-3 victory over top seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine.

Daniilidou will now meet Australian Casey Dellacqua, who made her first WTA quarter-final with a tough 6-4 4-6 6-1 victory over Russian Anna Lapushchenkova.

India's sixth seed Sania Mirza, fresh from some impressive perfomances at the Hopman Cup in Perth, advanced to the quarter-finals with 6-3 6-4 victory over Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva. (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Melbourne; editing by Miles Evans)