Thursday 20 November 2008
The 2009 ASB Classic featuring the Kia Motors Singles and Doubles is set to become one of the best yet with the confirmation of its fourth top-20 ranked player.
The January 5-10, tournament will see the return of current world No20, Katarina Srebotnik a consistent and popular player who has excelled in both singles and doubles in 2008.
Srebotnik adds to the already announced list of No4 Elena Dementieva, No11 Nadia Petrova and No12 Caroline Wozniacki making the top four seeds the highest in the tournament’s history.
The only other occasion four players have been ranked inside the top-20 was in 2007.
Srebotnik, the 2005 ASB Classic champion is at a career-high singles ranking having had her best season ever on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in both singles and doubles.
As an added bonus Srebotnik will form a relatively new partnership in Kia Motor Doubles in Auckland with Petrova. The pair will be a formibable partnership teaming up throughout 2009.
This year Srebotnik made eight quarterfinals or better at WTA events and put career-best equaling performances at Grand Slams, making the fourth round at Roland Garros with a win over Serena Williams and also at the US Open where she beat Svetlana Kuznetzova.
To start the year she reached the quarters at the ASB Classic and followed that up the next week with the quarters in Sydney. Her best finish was at Strasbourg where she won through to the final before losing to Anabel Medina Garrigues in three sets.
There were also semifinal results in Prague and Tokyo where she beat Dementieva in the quarters and had a total of five wins over top-10 players.
Showing her diversity Srebotnik also reached the quarters on grass at s’Hertogenbosch and the quarters at Zurich indoors.
In doubles she won titles at Miami, Charleston and Linz (all with Ai Sugiyama) and Moscow with Petrova. Another top doubles finish was reaching the semis of the US Open (with Sugiyama) and making the year-end WTA Tour Championships as one of the world’s top-four doubles teams.
In total Srebotnik has 20 doubles titles and has been a finalist at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2007 (with Sugiyama) and at the US Open in 2006 with Dinara Safina.
Throughout her career she has won three mixed Grand Slam titles (Roland Garros 2006, US Open 2003, Roland Garros 1999) and was a finalist in the mixed at Roland Garros (with Nenad Zimonjic) and Wimbledon (with Mike Bryan) this year.
Srebotnik’s victory at the ASB Classic four years ago came after an exhausting number of matches due to rain as she played the semifinal and final of the singles and the doubles finals in one day. She defeated Shinobu Asagoe in the final and then teamed up with the Japanese player to beat Leanne Baker and Francesca Lubiani in the doubles final.
Her best career results include tournament victories at Estoril in 1999 (her debut WTA Tour event), a win at Acapulco in 2002 and victory in Stockholm three years later.
“The confirmation of Katarina caps off a terrific top-four players for the 2009 ASB Classic. Katarina is a very talented player who is very popular in Auckland and it’s great to have her back following her best ever season.
It’s also a real plus that she will be teaming up with Nadia Petrova in the doubles. Having two of the top-four singles seeds, featuring together will be a real drawcard for fans and doubles enthusiasts,” says ASB Classic Tournament Director, Brenda Perry.
Srebotnik and Petrovare are two of just three players who are currently ranked in the top 20 in both singles and doubles.
Srebotnik was a member of the Slovenian Olympic team in 2000 and 2004 and has strong links to a number of tennis supporters in New Zealand having played at the ASB Classic on six previous occasions.
The full player list will be announced November 26.
The ASB Classic will also feature on-court coaching for the first time as part of an initiative on Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.
The tournament will once again feature audio and video podcasting as well as live scoring.
The ASB Classic featuring the Kia Motors Singles and Doubles will be played at the ASB Tennis Centre January 5-10, with qualifying January 3-4.
www.asbclassic.co.nz
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