Lynch plays basketball for Clijsters' hometown team

Flushing Meadows is scheduled to be the Belgian's final Grand Slam event before she retires at the end of the season.

But the 2005 US Open champion said: "It is difficult to know whether I will be able to make it to the US Open."

Clijsters, 23, who has already dropped out of the French Open, will marry American basketball player Brian Lynch in her hometown of Bree on July 14.

The world number five, who is in Miami for this week's Sony Ericsson Open, is clearly winding down her career as she prepares to leave the sport behind.

"Tennis is nearly over," she said on her website. "A couple more tournaments, saying goodbye mostly, and then enjoying having fun with the other players.

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"I'll finally be starting the new part of my life I have been longing for so hard: family, friends, married life and the dogs I have difficulty leaving behind."

Clijsters has battled injuries for much of her career, especially in the last few years.

In 2006, a left wrist injury prevented her from entering the US Open to defend her title, and from playing in the Fed Cup final.

This year, Clijsters won her 34th career singles title in Sydney and reached the Australian Open semi-finals, only to return home with a sore hip.

She regained fitness in time for the Diamond Games in Antwerp, her last event in Belgium, where she lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the final.