Anna Kournikova has been ruled out of Wimbledon after failing to shake off a back injury that has plagued her throughout the season.
As expected, the Russian has failed to recover from the "chronic lumbar complaint" which prevented her from playing in two warm-up events she had initially entered.
Kournikova joins former men's champion Goran Ivanisevic and Monica Seles as high-profile names to miss Wimbledon through injury.
The 22-year-old Russian also missed last week's grasscourt WTA tournament in Birmingham and this week's Eastbourne championships with the injury.
"They said my injury is chronic because it keeps coming back. It's the same problem I've had since after the Australian Open and it gives me referred pain in other areas, but it all comes from my back," Kournikova said when withdrawing from Birmingham.
A semi-finalist at Wimbledon the first year she played the event in 1997, Kournikova has been plagued with injuries over the past two seasons.
She has not played on the WTA Tour since April's Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, when she was forced to retire from her first-round match with a thigh strain.
Without a WTA title after spending more than seven years on the circuit, the Russian pin-up's off-court exploits have far overshadowed her tennis career.
Having reached those Wimbledon semis in 1997 as a precocious 16-year-old talent, the Russian has since failed to deliver the goods on court.
Last month, she tried to rebuild her confidence on the lower ITF Women's Circuit tournaments following four first-round defeats in the five WTA tournaments she has played this year, but injuries once again hindered her progress.
Her world ranking, and confidence, have been on the slide since she reached a career-high eighth in May 2001.
Now ranked outside the top 70 in the world, Kournikova is no longer considered a serious title contender on the WTA tour but remains the most photographed woman in sport.