Tennis: Good omen for a strong Classic

If the strength of the tournament is dictated by what lies beneath, the ASB Classic shapes as the strongest in years.

Sania Mirza, the silver medallist and pin-up girl of the recent Delhi Commonwealth Games is ranked 22 among the 28 players who go directly into the qualifying draw (four wildcards are added).

That might say as much about the implausibly weak field in Delhi as it does about the Classic, but it will still add some spice and hopefully spectators to what is usually a fairly soulless series of matches between the lesser lights of the WTA tour.

Mirza, who was once ranked 27, is far from the only intriguing player in the qualifying rounds.

The highest-ranked is Lourdes Dominguez Lino, a Spaniard rated 85 in the world, but the fourth-ranked qualifier, Tamira Paszek (90), was a semifinalist in Auckland in 2008 and has won twice on the WTA Tour despite having just turned 20.

Mirjana Lucic (97), is also a two-time winner and made the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1999.

She then disappeared from the scene for the best part of a decade, later revealing she suffered at the hands of an abusive father.

Russian Elena Bovina and German Anna-Lena Groenefeld are ranked 160 and 167 in the world respectively, but both reached as high as No 14 in the world after quarter-final appearances at grand slam events.

Kateryna Bondarenko, sister of tournament fourth seed Alona, is the eighth-ranked qualifier but will almost certainly join her sibling in the main draw as a wildcard, if only so they are guaranteed of playing doubles together. They won the Australian Open crown in 2008.

Tournament director Richard Palmer said that in previous years he would have been "more than happy" to have had some of this year's qualifiers in the main draw.

The qualifying rounds start on New Year's Day and admission to them is free.

Four qualifiers will go into the main draw, which starts on January 3 and is headlined by Russian star Maria Sharapova.