January 03, 2011
Today the hype will stop and the action begin for Maria Sharapova at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
The tournament's drawcard will play Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the third match on centre court.
It's a tricky match and Suarez Navarro shouldn't be underestimated. The nuggety Spaniard is a fast mover around the court and likes to play long rallies to grind out the points.
Her biggest moments in the sun were at the Australian Open last year and the French Open the year before when she made it to the quarterfinals. In Melbourne, she defeated Venus Williams on her way to the last eight, but went down to Elena Dementieva 6-2 6-2 to miss out on a spot in the semis.
But, while Suarez Navarro will pose a challenge, it's a match Sharapova should win and from there she has a dream run to the final.
Dinara Safina, Yanina Wickmayer and Svetlana Kuznetsova are all in the other half of the draw and it would be a sizeable upset for Sharapova to lose to the likes of Sofia Arvidsson, Kimiko Date-Krumm or Julia Georges. Safina and Wickmayer will play each other in the first round tomorrow, while for tournament organisers, the longer Sharapova is in it, the better.
Wearing a massive diamond engagement ring, Sharapova finally fronted the media on Saturday and handled herself well in interview after interview.
She has had nearly a week in Auckland to prepare herself and has put in a gruelling three hours on court most days.
Sacha Jones will be the first Kiwi in action at the Classic in the main draw today. She plays Kuznetsova in the second match, and the evening schedule features Japan's Date-Krumm against Kateryna Bondarenko.
The final round of qualifying will also be played today and there are some intriguing match-ups.
Britain's new big tennis hope, Heather Watson, will play Italy's Alberta Brianti, while Indian starlet Sania Mirza is against Germany's Sabine Lisiki in the opening match on centre court.
Mirza is a sporting icon in India and got as high as 27 in the world in 2007.
She had been in the top 100 for most of the time since, but had an injury-ravaged 2010, which took her ranking down to 141.
But she does go into the Classic in fine form, winning a US$75,000 tournament in Dubai on clay, where she beat three seeds, including Georges, the fourth seed in Auckland. "The important part of Dubai was the quality of the players at that tournament," Mirza said last night.
"It was a lot harder than many of the WTA tournaments I've played in.
"The top seed [Georges] was 40 in the world and you don't see that often in a US$75,000 tournament.
"If I can play that level of tennis day in day out then there is no reason why I can't be back."
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