ASB Classic Draws Out; Sania plays Voegele

The Main draw (singles) of ASB Classic in Auckland, NZ is out and the first round match-ups don't bring any surprises.

Top seed Flavia Pennetta faces American veteran Jill Craybas in round 1, while our very own Sania Mirza plays a first-time match against Swiss up and comer Stefanie Voegele, with a very possible 2nd round match with good friend, and regular doubles partner Francesca Schiavone.The top half looks well-loaded with a whole crop of up and coming players. Spanish girl Carla-Suarez Navarro, who created quite a buzz last season with her style of backhand, has a possible R2 match against Top seeded Pennetta. Aravane Rezai, who won the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's Tier-II year-end championships in Bali last year, is a possible QF draw for Pennetta. The other seeded girl in the draw is Russian babe Elena Vesnina. and watch out for  local Kiwi girl Marina Erakovic.


Bottom half promises some good first-round matches to look forward to. Former top 20 Slovakian,often called as pocket-sized powerhouse, Dominika Cibulkova plays Romanian one-hit wonder Alexandra Dulgheru. Former Russian Top 5 girl, Anna Chakvetadze (yeah! you guessed it right. Sania's biggest nemesis) who spent all of last season struggling with confidence, plays Japanese wonder veteran and WC, Kimiko Date-Krumm. (Date-Krumm came out of retirement at the age of 38 last year! )


Fiery french girl Virginie Razzano starts off against a Qualifier, and could well play against Belgian WC and 3rd seed Yanina Wickmayer. Belgian girl came off a turmoil at the end of last season, when she was banned from the tour for one year for skipping the regular dope test she was supposed to give under the 'whereabouts' clause, which requires players to inform the dope testing authorities well in advance about their 'whereabouts', so that they can be tested at any arbitary timing. Wickmayer did get relief from the ban and will be looking for a fresh start to the season, playing her first match of the season against German Julia Geroges.

Besides these matches, 8th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues plays Magdalena Rybarikova. Former world top 20, Israeli baseline grinder, Shahar Peer starts off against Polona Herclog. Russian Hottie Maria Kirilenko also starts against another German, Tatjana Malek. Perhaps the most intriguing match-up of Round 1 is 2nd seed Chinese Na Li against Estonian Kaia Kanepi.; this one promises some hard-hitting Tennis.


Doubles Draw is yet to be relased. I will soon update it.