Serena Career in Jeopardy as Former No 1 Pulls From Miami

The retirement rumors will make renewed rounds this week for former No. 1 Serena Williams, who announced she is pulling from the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami due to her ongoing knee problem.

The younger Williams sister further fueled her apparent lack on interest in tennis when she showed up in Melbourne in January for the Australian Open dramatically overweight.

The currently No. 58-ranked Serena has not played since Melbourne, with her knee that has already undergone one operation in 2003 failing to respond sufficiently to therapy this year.

Her last title was at the 2005 Australian Open, and was a Miami winner from 2001-03.

"I am very disappointed to withdraw but I feel like I need more time before I am able to compete at the highest level," Williams said in a statement.

The 24-year-old had formerly expressed an interest in going down in history as the greatest women's player ever, but over the years has been criticized for her pursuit of acting and the business of cosmetics and clothing design that at times seemingly trump her tennis interest.

"If she was committed, like she was at the turn of last year when she won the Aussie Open, she could rehab, but she's not," said tennis reporter Matt Cronin. "It's the least well-kept secret in the sport that she's found plenty of time to hit the New York and L.A. party circuit, but has devoted little time to get in shape and practice her sport...It's a very sad state of affairs for Serena, who, with the exception of her mom, surrounds herself with a clucking group of enablers. Like Tom Cruise, she disdains so-called "negative" people. She wants people around who keep telling her how very cool she is, and how very sexy she looks."

A year younger than Martina Hingis, who this year makes a comeback after a three-year absence from the game, Serena Williams may now have unlimited time for her off-court pursuits.

"It's pretty strange the way Serena is not at her best level right now," Justine Henin-Hardenne told reporters this week at Indian Wells. "It's probably very hard physically. She was tough for a long period of time. She's a great champion. She has been mentally one of the toughest players that I've seen on the tour. Probably now she's a bit tired about that. Physically, maybe it's harder for her to work as hard as she did before. But I think that we have other personalities on the tour that can promote the game. But, for sure, Serena, she has a name, the tour needs her, that's for sure. It's pretty sad that she's not playing a lot now."