ASB Classic: Lulu Sun, Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu receive favourable draws for women’s event

Specialist Multimedia Sports Journalist·NZ Herald·

28 Dec, 2024 04:25 AM4 mins to read

New Zealand tennis player Lulu Sun during a practice session ahead of the ASB Classic in Auckland. Photo / Photosport

For once, fortune favoured the ASB Classic tournament organisers when the draw was made for the women’s event on Saturday.

All the big names received relatively kind match-ups for their first hitouts of the year, setting up the possibility of marquee clashes later in the week. Japanese icon Naomi Osaka will face a qualifier, while Kiwi Lulu Sun (40) takes on world No 102 Rebecca Marino.

Marino is an experienced player, who reached as high as No 38 more than a decade ago, before taking a five-year break from the sport in 2013. There are no easy matches at this level but Sun will be content to face the Canadian, avoiding the potential jeopardy of the stronger unseeded names, such as former grand slam champions Sloane Stephens and Sofia Kenin or talented American Bernarda Pera.

On her third visit here, British star Emma Raducanu (57) will play American Robin Montgomery (117), while top seed Madison Keys (21) will open her campaign against Italian Lucia Bronzetti (73).

Nothing is guaranteed in tennis – especially early in the season – but the field is evenly split. That wasn’t the case in 2024, when Caroline Wozniacki – one of the marquee names – drew second seed Elina Svitolina in the opening round, before Raducanu faced Svitolina in the second round.

That was a great contest – one of the best in the tournament – but felt too early. It was the same in 2019, when Victoria Azarenka was paired with Venus Williams to start the event.

”It’s a well-balanced draw,” said tournament director Nicolas Lamperin. “A good split between the top seeds and the top and bottom halves of the draw. There are good matches all round and we avoid some of the big names playing each other in the first round.”

If successful first up, Sun could face Pera (71) in the second round, before a potential rematch with Raducanu in the quarter-finals, after their epic encounter at Wimbledon this year, which launched the New Zealander’s profile into another trajectory.

Young Kiwi Vivian Yang, who won the domestic playoff to gain a wildcard into the event, got one of the toughest possible opponents in second seed Elise Mertens (No 34).

Yang, who is ranked No 1241 as she starts on the circuit, was going to be a massive underdog whoever she faced but the Belgian has great pedigree, with eight WTA titles and a run to the Australian Open semifinals (2018) on her resume.

Osaka is seeded to meet Mertens in the quarter-finals and also has Stephens and third seed Anisimova on her half of the draw. The four-time grand slam champion could be rusty – she hasn’t played a competitive match in three months – but will be hard to beat if she gets going.

”In week one everyone starts on the same page,” said Lamperin. “You are coming from the off-season and you need matches. Naomi hasn’t played since September but she is such a great competitor and she knows what it takes to win. Whoever she plays, I don’t think that is the main thing, it’s all about whether she is prepared and ready to compete and I have no doubt that she will be.”