No-one could have planned a better centre court duel at the ASB Tennis Centre, the highest-ranked player ever to compete here against the darling of New Zealand tennis, Marina Erakovic.
Erakovic will face one of tennis' hottest and most marketable stars, Olympic singles champion Elena Dementieva. What more favourable giant-killing opportunity could the New Zealander have than a chance to back up 2008's magic victory over top seed Vera Zvonareva?
Erakovic said it all in five words yesterday, "I have to be focused." Her steadiness under pressure will be severely tested. She passed a pretty stern examination in beating Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives, serving well on the big points, but only after putting herself under pressure with more than a few too many errors while the Spaniard lacked a killer blow.
The Russian said she looks forward to the prospect and is sure the hometown crowd will applaud her good tennis too... it is something she enjoys rather than fears.
She was also obviously pleased with Tuesday's win against Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan. Chan began with a sustained assault of whistling forehands that would have rattled any top player.
Dementieva was all business in her recovery from the barrage. She didn't shy away and was prepared to hit her way out of trouble, so you can only speculate at what Erakovic will need to throw at her today.
In the first match of the day on centre court, Czech sixth seed Nicole Vaidisova will face Elena Vesnina of Russia, Dementieva's doubles partner whose Court 6 demolition of Japanese qualifier Aiko Nakamura was a mixture of power and precision that had her laughing and shrugging with her coach afterwards. It wasn't false modesty, she looked genuinely surprised with how cleanly she was hitting.
Vaidisova's form on Monday in a classic arm wrestle with Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, meanwhile, was even better because she throttled her way through a three-set dogfight.
Out on Court six the eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro will face Anne Keothavong, Great Britain's top ranked player. Keothavong beat Croatian wild card Mirjana Lucic easily on Tuesday but will find the Spanish seed a far tougher proposition.
Suarez Navarro has a one-handed backhand obviously modelled on Federer, while working on the court speed and footwork to match. She crouches side-on and unleashes low to high, something of a stylist, so make sure to give the outside courts their due attention.
Later on centre court, Danish second seed Caroline Wozniacki will meet American veteran Jill Craybas, and fourth seeded Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak comes up against the only qualifier to make the second round, Ayumi Morita of Japan.
Court 4 has three intriguing battles. Israeli fifth seed Shahar Peer plays Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, while 2008 runner-up Aravane Rezai of France faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia (youngest player in the draw at 17) and third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain meets wily Romanian Edina Gallovits.
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