"We had received an early indication she might be coming," said Palmer. "But as we hadn't heard anything recently, we were a little surprised when she arrived."
Talaja's ranking is now around 100, and she will have to qualify for the main draw of the tournament. which starts on Monday.
"Such is the standard of the players we have coming, the qualifying tournament will be the strongest ever," said Palmer.
"It already looks like six players from the world's top 100 will have to qualify.
"All players in the qualifying draw, apart from the [New Zealand] wildcards, are inside the top 190. That's unheard of."
Palmer confirmed that Pavlina Nola, yesterday's winner of the New Zealand Residential title, will take a wildcard into the main draw.
She will be joined by one other New Zealander - likely to be either Tracey O'Connor (runner-up to Nola) or Shelley Stephens, who remains the next highest-ranked New Zealander on the Sanex WTA ratings.
Whoever misses a place in the main draw will join the other New Zealanders already guaranteed a place in the qualifying tournament - Ilke Gers, Leanne Baker and Dianne Hollands.
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