Serena Williams wants to play for the United States in the Fed Cup final against Italy next month but only if she is still able to walk after the season-ending women's tour championships in Qatar.

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"I definitely want to play. I'm just trying to get there, it's just really hard to see how my body is going to be after Doha, if I'm going to be walking or I'm going to be in a wheelchair," she said after her third-round defeat by Russian Nadia Petrova at the China Open on Thursday.

Serena, who will reclaim the world number one spot from Dinara Safina next week, and her third-ranked sister Venus, who has also said she would like to play, missed the first round and semi-final wins over Argentina and the Czech Republic.

"If I'm walking then I really want to go because I have to go," Williams added. "But if I'm in a wheelchair, we have great people like Melanie (Oudin) who I think can really do a job, and Liezel (Huber), who's number one in doubles.

"We have a really good team and quite frankly they got there without me but I'd really like to go and support."

The final will be played on clay at the Rocco Polimeni club in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy on November 7 and 8.