Tennis: Sparkling Smashnova sails into top slot this time

By TERRY MADDAFORD

What a difference a year can make.

A day before the start of last season's Auckland women's international tournament, Israeli No 1 Anna Smashnova waited anxiously for a wildcard.

At the 11th hour, the tournament director, Richard Palmer, pencilled her name in as the last of the 32 players in the singles draw.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Smashnova, then ranked 89th in the world, swept to victory without dropping a set, beating Russian Anna Kournikova in the semifinals and Tatiana Panova in the final.

A year on, 32-year-old Smashnova will not have to wait outside Palmer's door. She will line up in the renamed ASB Classic as top seed in her eighth appearance here.

Now ranked a career-high 16, Smashnova has had a sparkling year. After her success in Auckland, she won in Canberra a week later, completing a 10-match winning streak.

Later in the year she triumped in Vienna and Shanghai.

But, like last year, the seeded players threaten to be upstaged by some of the sport's big names.

Palmer yesterday confirmed that former world No 3 Mary Pierce will play in Auckland for the first time in the December 30-January 4 tournament.

With a ranking of 52, the Canadian-born, US-based 27-year-old Frenchwoman will, like Kournikova last year, be unseeded, but will attract much attention in what is being billed as a "Glam Slam" tournament.

The winner of the French Open in 2000 - a victory which took her back to No 3 on the WTA rankings for the third time - Pierce, who also captured the Australian Open in 1995, is one of two Grand Slam winners in the 32-strong Classic field.

She is joined by 30-year-old former world No 2 Conchita Martinez (Spain). Pierce beat Martinez in the final at Roland Garros in 2000.

Martinez, who first played in New Zealand as a 16-year-old and in 1994 won the Wimbledon title, disappointed here last summer when beaten by unseeded Kristina Brandi in the first round.

Martinez, keen to prove she is better than that, had good late form on this year's tour as she clawed her way back to No 34 in the world.

She is almost certain to be the eighth, and last, seeded player.

Former top seed Elena Likhovtseva returns after a one-year absence. But at No 42, the 27-year-old Russian will be unseeded this time.

The overall standard is the highest in the tournament's history.

With Martinez the eighth seed at No 34, it is the first time all seeds have been inside the world's top 40.

At the other end of the draw, the last player assured direct entry is 2001 winner American Meilen Tu, who returns with a ranking of 73 - the first time the 24 players guaranteed a place in the main draw have been ranked inside the top 80.

Another former winner, 2000 champion Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) is back as fourth seed - one behind Panova, who returns with a career-high ranking of 23.

World No 22 Eleni Danilidou, 20 (Greece), one of the big movers on this year's tour in moving from 84 to 22, will be second seed behind Smashnova.

There are four players still to come from the qualifying tournament and three who will be handed wildcards by Palmer.

The other place can be taken by 22-year-old American Marissa Irvin who, as winner of this month's US$50,000 ($100,123) tournament in Eugene, Oregon, is entitled to a start in Auckland.

As the 77th ranked player, Irvin seems likely to come.

If not, that spot will go to the first person on the "next in" list of players to play the December 28-30 qualifying tournament.