New Season all set for a very exciting start in Auckland
For all the diehard tennis fans out there, you people may want to pack your bags and make your way to Auckland, New Zealand.
January is going to be a very exciting start to the new tennis season and two world-class events will be held in Auckland, one after the other. It will all kick off on New Year’s Day with the qualifying rounds for the ASB Classic
tournament for women. The next event on the schedule will begin on January 15 and will see the men with their battle faces on as they fight for the title at the Heineken Open. Both events are all set to take place in the newly reconstructed ASB Tennis Centre
in Parnell.
The top contender for the ASB Classic title seems to be Maria Sharapova. This is a big achievement for the event as it has been a relatively smaller event over the past few years. Now, having the name of such a big tennis star
attached to it, there is no doubt that the event will reach a much higher status and attract other big stars in the future.
From what we hear, the three-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova was the one who approached the tournament officials. Richard Palmer, the tournament director, revealed that the Russian player’s agent gave him a call to ask if they
were interested to have her play in the tournament. “Well, silly question," Palmer jokes about the entire episode.
The World acclaimed tennis star has a total of 22 titles to her name and has been the Number One player in the world on 4 separate occasions. This will be the first time in her career that she will be playing in New Zealand. Her
2010 performance graph left a lot of room for improvement and the 23-year-old is hoping that by shaking things up a little, as far as her schedule is concerned, she might be able to do much better next season.
Joining Sharapova on the courts will be fellow Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina. Kuznetsova has been having a tough year due to frequent injuries and illness. The two-time Grand slam winner, who has 13 singles titles
and 14 doubles titles to her credit, is now looking to the ASB Classic to set a better tone for the next season.
For Dinara Safina this will be her first appearance on the courts since she retired from the game. Safina has been troubled by injuries for a long time now. The ASB Classic will see her healthy after long. She is hoping that the
event will serve as the first step of her climb back to the top. The defending champion, Yanina Wickmayer has also been confirmed for the tournament.
Kiwi Sacha Jones has been awarded one of the four wildcards for the event. The 20-year-old local had to drop out of last year’s Classic because of an injury and only got back on the courts in September earlier this year.
The field for the tournament looks to be the most exciting one yet. All the players have a lot riding on this tournament. For many of the top contenders, the event marks their rise from the ashes of an injury-ridden season and
emergence as phoenixes by dominating the court. This time the battle has a very personal tone to it with each player trying to prove they still have some fight left in them. What an exciting watch this tournament will be!
The Heineken Open, which will immediately follow the ASB Classic, promises yet another exciting international line-up. The top seed for the event will be Spain’s David Ferrer. The Spaniard, who is currently Number 7 in the world,
won the event in 2007 and he will be looking to repeat his performance come 2011. Ferrer has an amazing record playing in Auckland and he has made it at least to the quarterfinals, on five of the six occasions he has played in the tournament.
Ferrer’s strongest competitor will be the defending champion John Isner. Isner made history earlier this year when he won the longest professional match ever at the Wimbledon. This win has gotten him much recognition worldwide
and it makes him the crowds favourite.
Regardless of who the eventual winners may be, both events are all set to be the battle grounds for some very memorable on-court rivalries. However, we for one will be following the event very closely.
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