Tennis: Stephens serves up a warning

Shelley Stephens hasn't bothered checking the opposition for her next two tennis tournaments in Wellington - but don't be fooled by her apparent lack of interest.

The No 2 ranked Kiwi woman simply has not had the time and maintains she is determined to win both the Wellington Open, which started yesterday, and the ITF international title next week.

Stephens, now based in North Harbour but originally from Otago, is top seed for the Open, and will play her first match this morning.

Her tight schedule means she will not arrive in Wellington until a few hours before play starts.

"I really like Wellington and I have heaps of friends made through tennis there," she said.

"The tournament is one of the best to play in because it's run so well.

"I hope I can play well because if you start the year well there, everything else falls into place. I did last year so I don't see why I can't again."

Stephens was a finalist at last year's Allfields-sponsored ITF tournament, beaten by teenage Taiwanese player Su-Wei Hsieh.

At that tournament she mapped her plan for last year, her most successful.

She made a rapid improvement in her doubles ranking and achieved her main goal of making it into a Grand Slam tournament, pocketing $A8000 ($9913) for her efforts.

Stephens and Japanese partner Haruka Inoue lost their first-round doubles match at the Australian Open last week in straight sets to 17th seeds Alex Fusai and Caroline Vis 6-1 6-4.

The match lasted just over an hour, with the experienced European pairing too strong at the net, but the match has given Stephens the confidence to tackle her singles ranking.

"The plan last year was to improve my doubles ranking which went from about the 180 mark at the beginning of the year to 139 now.

"It's quite hard to improve it from there because the lower your ranking gets, the harder it is to make those jumps.

"But if we can improve bit by bit we will make more cut-off marks into the big tournaments' main draw. It would be great to make it into the other Grand Slams where I can play in the singles qualifying and try to improve my ranking in singles as well."

Australian Kristen Van Elden, who knocked Stephens out of the Wellington tournament three years ago, pulled out this week. Her withdrawal means Stephens is likely to be the tournament's top seed.

The event has never been won by a New Zealander.

- NZPA