Former champion Samantha Stosur is in a battle to retain her US Open seeding as a hand injury further cruels her grand slam season.

Stosur is resigned to missing Wimbledon after scans revealed a stress fracture in her right playing hand needs rest and rehabilitation.

It is another bitter cruel blow for the 33-year-old Australian, who had emerged as one of the French Open favourites following eight straight wins on the European clay.

Stosur stormed to a 4-0 lead in 13 minutes in her fourth-round match against surprise eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko before succumbing to the injury late in the first set.

The one-time world No.4 coughed up three double-faults in one game when it became apparent the issue was seriously troubling her.

Now Stosur is in a battle against time to return to the court and defend valuable rankings points for the US Open starting in late August.

Champion in New York in 2011, Stosur has points from six events between now and Flushing Meadows, including one quarter-final in Washington among a total of eight wins.

Stosur’s management on Friday confirmed that while the Queenslander had yet to officially withdraw from Wimbledon she wouldn’t compete at the All England Club.

Her latest setback comes a week after Stosur relinquished the Australian top ranking for the first time in almost eight years to Daria Gavrilova.

Entrenched in the top 25 for almost a decade, the veteran needs to climb back into the world’s top 32 by mid-August to secure a US Open seeding, assuming she’s fit again by then.