China's Zeng faces months out

China's Zheng Jie has withdrawn from next month's China Open with a wrist injury that could rule her out of action for the rest of the year, tour and tournament officials said.

Zheng, currently number 23 in the WTA Tour rankings, will head to the United States for surgery to her left wrist, forcing her out of this month's Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and the Beijing event, a WTA press officer told AFP.

"The injury was sustained in the Australian Open last year," Zheng was quoted as saying by state media. "And I had been suffering from the injury the whole year."

Zheng reportedly needs three to six months to recover, meaning she could also miss the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November and the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of 2011.

Zheng made it to the US Open women's doubles semi-finals last week. She lost in the second round of the singles to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic.

The China Open, a joint WTA/ATP tournament, runs from October 2-10.

All of the major stars in the women's game have confirmed their participation including US Open champion Kim Clijsters, and Serena and Venus Williams.

On the men's side, US Open finalist Novak Djokovic will defend his title in Beijing against Britain's Andy Murray, Sweden's Robin Soderling and Russia's Nikolay Davydenko.