Victoria Azarenka suffers foot injury

Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka has pulled out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a foot injury.

Azarenka, who lost her world number one position to Serena Williams on Monday, has admitted that she risks further damage without a rest period.

"It happened last week. I have been obviously playing on it a lot, so going to a new tournament is too much to handle right now," she told reporters at a press conference.

"It keeps getting worse. It was an unfortunate decision that I had to make, and obviously I'm very disappointed with that."

Azarenka has yet to taste defeat this year.