History could be awaiting one of the five top-50 ranked Russian players who are confirmed for January’s 2006 ASB Classic featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles.With one of the best fields ever and an initial entry list which features all eight seeds inside the top 40 WTA rankings there’s so much talent within the field that a winner is hard to pick.
Four Russians will be seeded and one other will be just outside the seedings. Currently there are eleven Russians in the top-50 and it is significant that five of them are coming to Auckland. They are likely to be amongst the crowd favourites to win the title which would be a first as no Russian has ever won the title in Auckland.  Leila Meskhi won representing the Soviet Union in 1990, but is regarded as a Georgian.

Top seed for the ASB Classic will be Nadia Petrova at No 9 followed by Russian Elena Likhovtseva at No17. Glamour girl Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia will be the third seed with a ranking of19.  Fourth seed will be the third of the Russians 18 year old Maria Kirilenko at 25.

This is only the second time in the tournaments 21 year history that there have been three players in the top-20 and is a very appropriate way to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the ASB classic.   

Defending singles and doubles champ Katarina Srebotnik who has risen to a career-high 27 in the rankings will be the fifth seed while the woman she beat in the final Shinobu Asagoe of Japan will be the sixth seed at 38 followed by another Russian, teenager Vera Dushevina at 39.

A semifinalist from the past two years Marion Bartoli of France will be the eighth seed at 40.

A talented competitor to miss the seeding and therefore become a dangerous floater in the draw is former top-ten player and the fifth Russian in the top 50 Vera Zvonareva.

Zvonareva, 21 is currently ranked at 42 and was as high as No9 last year. She is currently tenth in the world in doubles. She was a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros in 2003, the same year she reached the quarters at the ASB Classic.

Known for her emotion on court Zvonareva adds an extra dimension to the field which also has Greek, Eleni Danilidou a two-time winner of the ASB Classic.

Another three players are ranked inside the top 50. Teenager, Shahar Peer from Israel who reached the quarter-finals of the Classic in 2005 as a qualifier is currently ranked at 45 just ahead of regular visitor to Auckland American, Jill Craybas at 47 and Japan’s Akiko Morigami at 48.  The total number of players inside the top 50 is 12 the best ever for the tournament.

Another popular returnee is Argentine, Paola Suarez who has been ranked as high as No9 in June last year and has entered the ASB Classic using a special ranking of 55.

Suarez has consistently been ranked as the top doubles player in the world and has seven Grand Slam doubles titles to her credit.

In singles she reached the semis at Roland Garros last year and has been a quarter-finalist at three other Grand Slams. She has four career singles titles and has a great record at the Classic having made the quarters in 2000, the final (lost to Meilen Tu) the following year and the quarters in 2003.

Of the seeds Petrova’s record speaks for itself having made the semis of a Grand Slam twice. Compatriot Likhovtseva, 30 was in the semis at Roland Garros this year and on two previous occasions has been in the quarters at Grand Slams (Australian Open 2000, Wimbledon 2002). She has three career singles title and 24 doubles titles to her credit with a highest singles ranking of 15 in October 1999 and high of No3 in doubles in 2004.

2006 will be her fourth appearance at the Classic following on from 1996 where she lost in the first round, 2000, quarter-finals and 2003, second round. With Cara Black she was a beaten doubles finalist in 2003.

Kirilenko and Doushevina are two of the rising stars of tennis. The first is 18 years old and the second turned 19 last month.

Kirilenko made a final at Beijing the semis at Hyderbad and Tokyo as well as the quarters at both Doha and Guanqzhou in 2005 and is rated as a real prospect to reach the top ten within the next 12 months.

The big results for Douchevina was at the 2005 Australian Open where scored a fourth round result and at the Tier2 event in Eastbourne she qualified and then beat Katarina Srebotnik in the first round, world No3 Amelie Mauresmo in the second round, Marion Bartoli in the quarters, Roberta Vinci in the semis before losing to Kim Clijsters. She also made the semis at Stockholm and the quarters at two other events as well as excelled in doubles.

The cut-off for the 23 direct entries currently stands at 78 with two wildcards to be added, four qualifiers and two feed ups – US$50,000 Biella (Italy) winner, Yulia Beygelzimer(Ukraine) and US$50,000 Juarez(Mexico) winner Olga Blahotova (Czech Republic). There is also a gold/silver exempt wildcard which the WTA Tour administers.

The 2006 ASB Classic featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles will be held January 2-7, 2006 at the ASB Tennis Centre, 1 Tennis Lane, Parnell with qualifying on Saturday 31 December 2005 and Sunday 1 January 2006.