BIRMINGHAM, England -- Defending champion Jelena Jankovic and French Open runner-up Dinara Safina will not compete at the DFS Classic starting Monday.
Jankovic withdrew from the Wimbledon warmup with the same arm injury which caused the Serb to fly home to Belgrade after losing to Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals of the French Open.
Safina withdrew with a bad back. The 14th-ranked Russian was the fourth top 20 player to withdraw from a tournament, including Maria Sharapova who decided to skip the tournament due to a persistent shoulder problem.
Jankovic beat Sharapova in last year's final and also went on to reach the final at Den Bosch, The Netherlands, in the following week. She entered Wimbledon tired and lost to Marion Bartoli in the last 16.
This time, the 23-year-old Jankovic intends to arrive at the All-England club in better shape with her focus totally on singles -- reducing the likelihood of her attempting to defend the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Britain's Jamie Murray.
Agnieszka Radwanska also withdrew injured from the DFS Classic, although 10 players in the world's top 50 will be present.
The missing stars underline the significance of the WTA's vaunted blueprint for the future. Roadmap 2010 -- already brought forward to 2009 -- plans to induce fewer withdrawals in future with a mixture of incentives, less stringent commitments and tougher punishments.
Safina's name -- unlike Jankovic's -- had already appeared in the draw, and her place as second seed has been taken by 16th-ranked Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.
The ninth-ranked Bartoli is the top seed.
