KEY POINTS:
WARSAW - Kim Clijsters is playing only a few tennis tournaments in the run-up to her July wedding because she does not want to risk getting injured and having to limp down the aisle.
The 23-year-old Belgian, who will retire at the end of the season and has pulled out of this year's French and US Opens, is marrying American basketball player Brian Lynch.
The former world No 1 and 2005 US Open winner has often said tennis is not her top priority, and in a year where she is busy with wedding preparations it is especially true and she is picking her tournaments carefully.
"The tournaments I'm playing this year are ones that I definitely feel very emotionally connected to. I'm very motivated for the tournaments that I'm playing," she said today before starting the defence of her Warsaw Cup title this week.
"I don't want to risk getting injured and maybe wearing a brace or a cast at the wedding. That's the last thing that I want to do," she said.
"So far the next tournaments on the schedule are Eastbourne and Wimbledon."
Clijsters added that she was no longer physically capable of playing as much as she used to and did not want to enter tournaments without having done enough preparation.
"You have to ask yourself if you want to be at the other tournaments unprepared, or drop some things. So this year I'm just doing what I want to do," she said.
- REUTERS