By TERRY MADDAFORD
In a coup for Auckland Tennis, all winners from this year's women's classic will defend their titles in January.
Only rarely have titleholders returned for the January tournament, but 2000 ASB Bank Classic singles champion Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) and doubles winners Cara Black (Zimbabwe) and France's Alexandra Fusai have already confirmed they will come back.
Kremer beat Black, a former world junior singles and doubles champion, in this year's singles final, while Black and Fusai beat Barbara Swartz and Patricia Wartusch in the doubles.
Fusai, who regularly partners Natalie Tauziat, has won nine doubles titles and has a doubles ranking of 12.
Twenty-five-year-old Kremer is 40th on the Sanex WTA singles rankings - one below Black - and joins Austrian Barbara Schett and Croatian Mirjana Lucic among the early favourites for the 2001 singles crown.
The classic will be played at Stanley St from January 1 to 6.
Tennis: Winners of women's classic return
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