KEY POINTS:
Marina Erakovic will be in doubles action tonight but Auckland tennis fans will have to wait at least 24 hours to see the local hope and the ASB Classic's big guns in singles action.
Top-seed and reigning Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, second-seed Caroline Wozniaki and Erakovic will
play their first-round singles matches tomorrow.
Erakovic has a favourable enough first-round draw against Spanish world No. 69 Nuria Llagostera Vives but, with world No. 4 Dementieva in a potential second-round encounter, her chances of repeating last year's run to the semifinals appear slim.
Erakovic will have the chance to test Llagostera Vives tonight when the pair meet in first round doubles action. Erakovic and veteran American partner Jill Craybas are the first seeds in the doubles. The pair have a 6-1 record, having won the Japan Open together and reached the semifinals in Seoul during the latter stages of last season.
Dementieva will also take her first centre court bow in doubles today. The Russian teams up with countrywoman Elena Vesnina in the final match of the day session.
The highest ranked player to feature in the Classic, Dementieva comes to Auckland on the back of her most successful season on tour, having picked up three WTA titles to go with her Olympic crown.
Yet to break through at Grand Slam level - the closest she came was finals losses in the 2004 French and US Opens - the 27-year-old unsurprisingly ranks Olympic success as her best achievement. "For me, that was the biggest goal in my career and I'm extremely happy to achieve [it]," she said.
"But for sure, everyone wants to win a Grand Slam, everyone wants to be No 1, and there are a few goals I'd like to achieve yet."
Dementieva will open her Classic campaign against Taipei's 74th-ranked Chan Yung-Jan tomorrow.
"It's going to be a tough match because I know she's a good player and, especially coming into a new season, you don't know what to expect from other players," she said.
Last year's beaten finalist Aravane Rezai is first up on centre court today. The unseeded French woman takes on popular wildcard Eleni Danilidou.
Czech sixth seed Nicole Vaidisova will take on Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.
The 34-year-old Craybas is in for a busy day, taking on 38-year-old Japanese wildcard Kimiko Date Krumm in the final match of the day session before teaming up with Erakovic at night.
Fourth-seed Aleksandra Wozniak's match against Slovakian Rybarikova looks the pick of the games on the outside courts. There will also be plenty of interest in how Dutch woman Michaela Krajicek fares in her final round qualifying match against Ayumi Morita, the Japanese player who defeated Erakovic in the first round of the Olympics.
Third-seed Anabel Medina Garrigues - the only player to take a set off last year's champion Lindsay Davenport - is the main bill of the night session, squaring off against Italian Mara Santangelo.