Venus, who had also been playing with both wrists strapped, acquired a further conspicuous bandage halfway through the match, on her right hand where she had a troublesome blister.

However during an error-ridden display it was hard to know whether the bandage helped or hindered the elder Williams sister, or even whether she was in the right frame of mind to compete.

"I was smiling because my stomach hurts, and my hand's going crazy and still somehow I was in the match," she said.

"I thought why am I out here. To the people who came to support me -- I'm sorry I wasn't well."

Venus admitted that it was similar to the injury she had during the 2003 Wimbledon final, and that unless there was a marked improvement she might miss the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami, starting on March 23.

All this was a significant disappointment to the Dubai tournament, which had managed a rare coup -- the presence of both Williams sisters in a tournament outside a Grand Slam.

Farina Elia next plays Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, with every possibility of going on to a quarterfinal with Svetlana Kuznetsova, the US Open champion from Russia.

Kuznetsova starts Tuesday against Sania Mirza, the 18-year-old Indian wild card entry, who recently won her first WTA Tour title and who came through 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 against Jelena Kostanic, the world number 36 from Croatia.

Top-seeded world number one Lindsay Davenport also starts on Wednesday, against Zheng Jie, the world number 65 from China who won 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 against Virginia Ruano Pascal of Spain.