Australia's chances of victory in their Fed Cup World Group playoff tie against Ukraine this weekend in Melbourne have suffered a further blow with Jelena Dokic pulling out.
Already missing star and world no.5 Samantha Stosur her withdrew to focus on her French Open campaign, the loss of Dokic will make it even harder for Australia with a return to the competition's elite eight-team world group at stake.
Dokic informed Tennis Australia officials on Sunday night she needed time off to recover as she was suffering from exhaustion.
A replacement for Dokic, who is Australia's third-highest ranked player at No.63 in the world, has not been named as yet.
The options include Casey Dellacqua and Olivia Rogowska.
World No.30 Jarmila Groth, Anastasia Rodionova and Sophie Ferguson are the other members of the squad for the clay-court encounter.
Dokic has had a strong start to 2011, beating French Open champion Francesca Schiavone on her way to winning a WTA title in Kuala Lumpur, her first since 2002.
She also reached the quarter-finals in Paris, where she lost to Kim Clijsters, and has an excellent 13-3 Fed Cup win-loss record.
Groth has also had an encouraging season thus far, winning the WTA event in Hobart in January and losing in the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur.
Ferguson, whose favourite surface is clay, returns to the side for the first time since 2005.
The Fed Cup tie will be held at Glen Iris Valley Recreation Club, Mount Waverley on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 April 2011.