Tennis: Wildcards last hope for NZ

By CHRIS RATTUE

New Zealand was left with just two players in the international women's tournament, starting at Stanley Street today, after a double qualifying disappointment.

If the pre-tournament publicity is anything to go by, the real action for many will start tomorrow when Anna Kournikova takes the court against Cara Black from Zimbabwe.

And there is still unfinished pre-tournament business to get through early today when the final four singles qualifiers and final doubles qualifiers will be found.

But it is already a familiar and disappointing story for New Zealand tennis.

Ilke Gers and Leanne Baker, with their respective partners Nathalie Grandin (South Africa) and Manisha Malhotra (India), were eliminated in the doubles qualifying tournament yesterday.

That has left the Auckland-based Shelley Stephens, of Otago origins, and the Bulgarian-born Pavlina Nola as this country's representatives - thanks to wildcards - in the ASB Bank Classic.

And Nola will have to cause a massive upset to progress past the first round today when she meets third seed Anne Kremer from Luxembourg on centre court.

Kremer, who won the Auckland title two years ago, is ranked 33 in the world compared to Nola's ranking of 128. Nola will be hoping that an early-season lottery can fall her way.

And this is a tournament where seeds get buried - from 1995 to 1997, the winners were a wildcard entry and two qualifiers.

One of those who can still qualify - Silvija Talaja from Croatia - said that qualifiers often had an advantage in the first tournament of the year because they came in with match practice and more court knowledge.

Talaja has won the WTA third-tier tournament at Gold Coast, which rivals the $US140,000 ($337,500) fourth-tier Auckland event as the season-opener.

She has battled abdominal and Achilles' injuries over the past year and her ranking has dropped from 18 to 109.

After beating compatriot Jelena Kostanic yesterday, Talaja said she had already been impressed by the warm welcome on her first visit to Auckland.

"It is more like being home. At the Gold Coast, everything was more official. What I really need now is tour points and my aim is to get into the top 50 again.

"At the beginning of the year it is always better to have a few matches going into a tournament.

"You never know who is going to win at this time - maybe it will be a qualifier."

For the home audience, it will be a bonus just to get a New Zealander into the second round.

Nola has the first chance today. Stephens could end up facing Talaja tomorrow as she has been drawn to play a qualifier in the first round. Stephens and Nola will meet in the second round, if they make it.

Stephens and her doubles partner, Joanna Cortez from Brazil - again as wildcards - face the unseeded but tough pairing of defending singles champion Meilen Tu from the United States and Swiss Olympian Emmanuelle Gagliardi in their opening game.

Today's feature match on centre court has seventh seed and former American Federation Cup player Amy Frazier - who is seeking her seventh singles title on her first visit to Auckland - up against unseeded Slovakian Martina Sucha, who reached her highest ranking of 57 in October.

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