Tennis: Doubles aces set to plunder singles

By TERRY MADDAFORD

This year's international women's tournament is set to become the Paola Suarez-Virginia Ruano Pascual benefit.

The world's top-ranked doubles pairing are poised to grab the money and run by the time the ASB Classic ends on Saturday.

And a big share of those American dollars could be won in singles.



Argentine Suarez, top seed and world No 14, has drawn a qualifier for her first-round match tomorrow.

Safely through that, she would then be up against either world No 116 American Lindsay Lee-Waters or the Italian 70th-ranked Rita Grande.

Lee-Waters is one of three players who was guaranteed a main draw spot at the ASB Bank Tennis Centre after winning one of three "feed-in" tournaments last year.

The highest-ranked player in Suarez's quarter of the draw is Japan's Shinobu Asagoe, the fifth seed, who is at No 45 on the WTA list.

Should Suarez and defending champion Eleni Daniilidou (Greece) win their first three matches, they would meet in the semifinals.

Daniilidou will feature in first-day action today.

She meets Croatian Jelena Kostinic, unseeded and ranked 66th in the world, in the third match on centre court.

Ruano Pascual, in the bottom half of the draw, like her doubles partner, faces a qualifier first up tomorrow.

Ranked 55th in the world in singles, the Spaniard just missed a seeding, but could meet sixth seed, 22-year-old American Laura Granville, in the second round.

Granville, ranked 46, is seen by some as the upset chance at the Classic. She lost to Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi in the quarter-finals at the ASB Tennis Centre last year, but went on to reach semifinals in Memphis and Quebec City. She also reached the quarter-finals at Scottsdale after beating Chanda Rubin before losing to Kim Clijsters.

Granville will play another of the four qualifiers in second-day action tomorrow.

In the opening match on centre court, at 11am today, former finalist Cara Black (Zimbabwe) will play fourth seed (and world No 44) Maria Vento-Kabchi (Venezuela).

Black, beaten by Anne Kremer in the 2000 singles final (she won the doubles that year with Alex Fusai), is a surprise no-show in the doubles this time.

The second match today promises to attract plenty of interest.

New Zealanders Eden Marama and Shelley Stephens square off in a much-anticipated clash.

Stephens, for some years the highest-ranked New Zealand player on the WTA tour, has yet to get beyond the first round here.

This promises to be her best chance, but Marama will be just as keen as the winner is guaranteed US$1825 and, more importantly, 12 invaluable WTA ranking points.

Stephens is ranked 371 - 120 places higher than her 17-year-old opponent.

It promises to be a battle between two nervous players in a rare centre court appearance.

Today's schedule

All courts start 11am, prefix numbers indicate seeds

Centre court: Cara Black (Zimbabwe) v 4-Maria Vento-Kabchi ((Venezuela) followed by, Shelley Stephens (NZ) v Eden Marama (NZ), 3-Eleni Daniilidou (Greece) v Jelena Kostanic (Croatia), Teryn Ashley (US) v Ashley Harkleroad (US), 1-Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spain)/Paola Suarez (Argentina) v Emmanuelle Gagliardi (Switzerland)/Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain).

Court four: Meilen Tu (US) v Jill Craybas (US) qualifying, followed by Tara Snyder (US) v Martina Sucha (Slovakia) qualifying, Amy Frazier (US) v Marie-Gayane Mikaelian (Switzerland), Lindsay Lee-Waters (US) v Rita Grande (Italy), Maria Emilia Salerni (Argentina)/Asa Svensson (Sweden) v 3-Marion Bartoli (France)/Laura Granville (US).

Court six: Seiko Okamoto (Japan) v Shenay Perry (US) qualifying, followed by Tathinana Garbin (Italy) v Mara Santangelo (Italy) qualifying, 8-Anca Barna (Germany) v Ludmila Cervanova (Slovakia), Kristina Brandi (Puerto Rico) v 5-Shinobu Asagoe (Japan), Shinobu Asagoe (Japan) and Yuka Yoshida (Japan) v Alina Jidkova (Russia) and Akiko Morigami (Japan).