Injured Davydenko out of Australian Open

CHENNAI (Reuters) - World number five Nikolay Davydenko will miss the Australian Open later this month after aggravating a left heel injury.

"The first time I felt this pain was during the Kremlin Cup in Moscow (in October 2008)," Davydenko told reporters at the Chennai Open, where he was top seed.

"Whenever I take a few days off it starts getting better. But as soon as I've played a match the pain comes back.

"I got pain killers but it still was very painful. I cannot imagine playing a match with this injury in Australia if I feel this bad after playing two sets here in Chennai."

The 27-year-old Russian was scheduled to play a second-round match in Chennai against Lukas Dlouhy but instead had to hand the Czech wildcard a walkover.

"I will now fly home, see the doctors and do an MRI to get more information," he said.

"My plan is to rest and try to play again in Rotterdam. It is very disappointing but as the doctors told me there's nothing you can do right now."

Davydenko was runner-up to Serbian Novak Djokovic in the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai and finished 2008 in the top five for a fourth straight season.

(Reporting by Sanjay Rajan; editing by Pritha Sarkar)