The trail of injury and illness woes at Eastbourne continued today as Caroline Wozniacki retired hurt three games into her semi-final with a back injury.

The Danish second seed was 3-0 down to Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic when she called for a medical time out.

Wozniacki was holding her lower back during a lengthy discussion with the doctor and decided, with Wimbledon only days away, that she could not continue.

She is the third player this week to have withdrawn from the Aegon International through injury. Seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard cried off, also during her match against Bencic in the third round, with a stomach injury.

Lucky loser Daria Gavrilova dropped out, again with a stomach injury, before her quarter-final against Sloane Stephens.

Wozniacki said: "I've had a slight back problem the whole week. Today it stiffened up on me. I felt really bad for the crowd but there was nothing I could do about it."

The early exit of Wozniacki, who vowed to be fit for Wimbledon, left centre court ticket holders short-changed as Ekaterina Makarova also scratched from the doubles semi-finals, citing Achilles trouble.

Earlier in the week top seed Petra Kvitova and sixth seed Angelique Kerber withdrew from the tournament due to illness.

The fortunate Bencic faces Agnieszka Radwanska in tomorrow's final after the Polish ninth seed edged past the unseeded Stephens 6-1, 6-7, 6-2 in the first semi-final.