World number nine Lucie Safarova said on Sunday she would skip the Hopman Cup in Perth in January to recover from a bacterial infection that saw her hospitalised for a week in September.

"Due to complications linked to the bacterial infection, I'm not fully fit yet and so I have decided to pull out of the Hopman Cup," Safarova said on Facebook.

She added that 11th-ranked Karolina Pliskova would replace her to team up with world number 41 Jiri Vesely for the January 3-9 mixed team event.

Safarova, who played the French Open finals last year before catching the infection, said she wanted to get ready to "start next season at the Australian Open" later next month.

After the infection, Safarova returned to tennis in time to play at the WTA Finals in Singapore in October, where she failed to make it past the group stage.

She was also on the Czech team that won the Fed Cup in mid-November but did not play because of an inflamed tendon in her left wrist.
Source: AFP