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Australia's Ellen Perez, who retired with injury in her first match out of hard lockdown, says Open players who weren't allowed out to train will struggle.

Forced to retire from her match with a back injury, Australia's Ellen Perez has declared those players who were in hard lockdown - a quarter of the Open field - can't win the tournament.

Perez only got out of hotel quarantine at 1230 on Wednesday morning and headed straight to Rod Laver Arena for her first hit in 14 days.

She then tried to play her first match against American Ann Li in the Grampions Trophy - reserved for female players who had been in hard lockdown - but was forced out while trailing 5-3.

"Overnight after my hitting it stiffened up but I wanted to give myself a chance so I warmed up and thought maybe I could get through the match but it was something that got worse," said Perez, the world No.237.

"I've always had chronic back pain ... but going from zero to 100 it's really flared up."

It was Perez's second hard quarantine, having done it in Perth late last year on her way home from the French Open and she suffered an abdominal strain in her comeback match then.

Perez believed it would be near impossible for the 73 players who were unable to leave their rooms to train to seriously challenge for the title.

That includes grand-slam champions Bianca Andreescu, Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber while the highest profile male player is Japan's Kei Nishikori.

World No.8 Andreescu, who won the US Open in 2019, pulled out of the tournament to try to get more training under her belt.

"I think we are at a disadvantage - you've got very limited days and each day really does make a difference," said Perez, who will play doubles at the Open.

"It's extremely tough to go through that lockdown and maintain that repetition and same intensity.

"You can't strike a ball or practice serves so everything stiffens up."

She said the men, who play best of five sets in the majors, would particularly struggle.

"For the men, I can't see how they're going to manage to be able to pull up from a five-set match and back it up.

"The women may struggle a bit less but I definitely wouldn't want to be in that position, trying to go deep having come out of lockdown."