By TERRY MADDAFORD
Ten of the world's top 50 women tennis players will compete in the Auckland international tournament from January 1 to 6.
Fifteen countries are represented in the 24 confirmed direct entries into the main draw for the ASB Bank Classic at Stanley St.
The top seed, world No 18 Sandrine
Testud, of France, will be a deserved favourite, but tournament director Richard Palmer said the strong field made picking a winner very difficult.
"It is the first time since 1996, when the rival Gold Coast tournament was first played, that we have attracted so many top-50 players," Palmer said yesterday. "Outside the big names, the player to watch could be the 18-year-old Polish-based Russian Nadejda Petrova, whose mother, Nadejda Ilina, won the 400m bronze at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
"She is seen as the new Elena Dementieva and is already highly regarded on the international circuit."
The popular Dementieva will miss Auckland because she has been lured to the Hopman Cup in Perth, where she will partner one of the world's best men's players, Olympic champion and world No 1 Marat Safin, in the lucrative team's event.
Such is the standard, nine players who have made the main draw in the past will have to qualify for the 32-strong field.
The cut-off for the main draw came with world No 93 Cristina Torrens-Valero.
The 24 players in the main draw will be joined by four from the qualifying tournament, plus Mirjana Lucic, who has received a wildcard, another two wildcard entries - one likely to be a New Zealander, the other for any other top-50 player who decides to play - and the winner of a $150,000 tournament in the United States this weekend.
