KEY POINTS:
You've just won the French Open title, you're officially the second best player on Earth and you're 22. Life must have looked just fine to Anastasia Myskina in June 2004.
But the last two years have not been easy, and the player who will get her year started in the ASB Classic on Monday is out to recapture the game which had her at the forefront of the Russian march towards domination of the women's game.
The odd Belgian or Frenchwoman apart, it's the Marias, Svetlanas and Nadias who have replaced the Serenas, Venuses and Lindsays as the hotshots.
For Myskina, 2004 will be tough to top. Apart from her magic fortnight in Paris, when she became the first Russian to win a Grand Slam, beating compatriot Elena Dementieva in a one-sided romp, she made the semifinals at the Athens Olympics, and was the standout performer when Russia won the Fed Cup for the first time in her back yard of Moscow in November.
And from that night, she's sure to remember the bear-hug she copped from former president, beefy Boris Yeltsin. But since then, she's had to cope with a serious illness to her mother Galina, and legal battles over photographs she didn't want published.
While her off-court drama was going on, her ranking slipped. She's still No 16, has won 10 singles titles - seven of them in 2003-04 - and banked just under US$5.6 million. She made three finals this year - at Istanbul, Eastbourne and Stockholm - but had her campaign cut short by a toe inflammation.
Yet Myskina appears a composed sort, phlegmatic about events and accepts that you have to ride the tough breaks and grab your chances when they come.
"It was really tough at one point, but my team was round me and that helped a lot," she said.
By team, she means her coach German Jens Gerlach, family and friends. And they crop up in conversation often.
She acknowledged it can be difficult to stay mentally strong if things are not going your way, "and you put yourself down, [you think] 'Oh, I can't do it any more'. But you have your team round you who help you believe in yourself."
And Myskina insists she feels no pressure to regain her spot at the elite table of the women's game, which currently includes four other Russians - Maria Sharapova (No 2), Svetlana Kuznetsova (No 4), this year's Classic top seed Nadia Petrova (No 6) and Elena Dementieva (No 8).
"No, not at all. Of course you want to play your best, want to win tournaments. But you have great years and bad years and that's sports life. You cannot always be on top. You win and you lose."
She reckons this year she's been "playing okay, much better than 2005. But my injury was really bad by the end of the year. Now I'm healthy and really looking forward to it".
Only two other players have contested the Auckland event after winning a Grand Slam - Spain's Conchita Martinez, who turned up some years after winning at Wimbledon in 1994, and France's Mary Pierce, who won the Australian Open in 1995 and the French crown in 2000 - played here in 2003.
Myskina will be second seed behind Serbia's Jelena Jankovic next week. If she takes a glance at her head-to-head record against the other seven seeds, she might give a quiet smile.
Out of a total 16 matches against six of them - she has yet to play eighth-seeded American Shenay Perry - Myskina has lost just once, to fifth seed and this year's beaten finalist in Auckland, Vera Zvonareva, who beat her on clay in Berlin in 2003.
She holds a 3-0 record against Jankovic, won her only clash with defending champion and third seed Marion Bartoli last year and is 2-0 against fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova.
Myskina insists she can make it back to the very top. She knows she has to brush up her serve to stay on par with the tall, lithe, athletes at the top of the circuit - but she's been working hard.
Through the latter part of the year, when other players were putting their feet up she's been clocking up the kilometres and hitting "thousands of balls".
She's relishing the thought of getting back on court and after her good friend and frequent Auckland visitor Elena Likhovtseva gave her the word that Auckland was a good starting point, she's happy to be here.
Myskina is no longer the only Russian Grand Slammer.
Sharapova has done it twice, Kuznetsova once since Myskina broke down the door.
And she was the first to crack the top five. The others swarmed in after her breakthrough.
And perhaps it's that thought which provides a spur for Myskina. A hint of determination surfaces as she pondered the year ahead.
"It was great to be the first to do something, but I know a lot of [Russian] girls did a lot of things right after me. I want to do something else, I want to win more tournaments.
"This [Auckland] is good for me, I need these matches, I need to get into the top 10."
Anastasia Myskina
Born: July 8, 1981, in Moscow
Lives: Moscow
Height: 1.74m
Weight: 59kg
World ranking: 16
Highest ranking: 2 (Sept. 2004)
WTA Tour singles titles: 10
WTA Tour doubles titles: 5
Career earnings: US$5.5 million ($7.8m)
