KEY POINTS:
Organisers of next year's women's tennis tournament in Auckland believe they have delivered on their promise to assemble the most competitive field yet as the event embarks on a new era.
The field for the main draw of the ASB Classic was finalised yesterday with the top four
seeded players all ranked inside the world's top 20.
With top seed and world number four Elena Dementieva having already been revealed as the headline act, one of the features of yesterday's announcement was the news former top 10 player Nicole Vaidisova has signed on to play at the tournament.
The 19-year-old Czech has been as high as No 7 in the world in May last year, but will be seeded eighth at the Classic after slipping to number 41 in the rankings.
Other new names revealed were fifth seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak the sixth seed, and Israel's Shahar Peer at seven.
Tournament director Brenda Perry believes the depth of the field will be the strongest seen in New Zealand.
"There is outstanding strength at the top, not just because of their rankings, but five of the top six are actually at their career best and that's really significant," said Perry.
With over half the field under 22 years old, next year's tournament will also feature a number of young emerging players including Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, who came through qualifying to reach the quarter-finals of Roland Garros this year.
"It's a nice mix of all those aspects, strength, youth, new faces and it blends together to be a very entertaining week."
But for Perry, the signing of Dementieva was the most significant.
"Everyone here expects the best possible, so it was very nice to be able to deliver a big name player who has been in the Grand Slam finals, won the gold medal and has beaten all the current top-10 players," she said.
"There's high expectations, particularly for sponsors. They've put up a lot more money, so it was not a year to come up short."
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic makes the main draw of the tournament following her climb up the rankings this year. It is the first time a Kiwi player has made the main draw of the tournament on their own merits since Belinda Caldwell in the early 90s.
Erakovic had a stirring run to the semifinals of the 2008 event in what was to be the beginning of a stand-out run for the 20-year-old, who broke in to the top 50 for the first time this year.
* Top seeds
1. Elena Dementieva - Russia (world ranking 4)
2. Nadia Petrova - Russia (11)
3. Caroline Wozniacki - Denmark (12)
4. Katarina Srebotnik - Slovakia (20)
5. Anabel Medina Garrigues - Spain (22)
6. Aleksandra Wozniak - Canada (34)
7. Shahar Peer - Israel (38)
8. Nicole Vaidisova - Czech Republic (41)
