TOP seed Marion Bartoli and former World No 1 Venus Williams have withdrawn from next week's BMW Malaysian Open.
Marion cited injury as her reason while Venus is still struggling with illness.
The tournament, however, will not lose its glitter as tournament organiser, Carbon Worldwide, has secured Poland's World No 6 Agnieszka Radwanska and Serbia's former World No 1 Jelena Jankovic as their replacements.
They are expected to jet straight to Kuala Lumpur from the Middle East, where they are presently competing in the Dubai Open.
Agnieszka and Jelena, the World No 13, will be the top two seeds with the latter replacing China's World No 17 Peng Shuai as the second seed.
The 22-year-old Agnieszka, whose younger sister Urszula also plays on the tour, has won seven career titles. It will be her first visit to Kuala Lumpur.
As for Jelena, who defeated Australia's US Open champion Samantha Stosur in the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open on Thursday, she was a World No 1 for only a week in 2008.
The 27-year-old has won 13 career titles and her best achievement in a Grand Slam was reaching the final of the 2008 US Open.
Jelena is determined to regain her former status after several promising performances this season.
Malaysia's Jawairiah Noordin and Choo Lyn Yuen will both begin their campaign today in the qualifying round.
