Top seed Elena Dementieva of Russia has an opponent in today's ASB Classic semifinal that, on paper at least, she should put away easily.
No sporting contest was ever won before kick-off though, and Aravane Rezai of France has a few not exactly minor points on her side.
Firstly as runner-up at the tournament in 2008 she is about to play her ninth Auckland match in just over a year. Secondly, she is obviously enjoying herself in the position of underdog with little to lose.
Dementieva has also been careful to point out (repeatedly in fact) during the course of the week that this is "the first tournament of the year," and as such "anything can happen," she "will be prepared to try things" she normally wouldn't.
Then of course there is the choice of black as the colour of Rezai's outfit. She designs her own clothing and says she likes to play in the popular colour of the country she's in.
"Courting" affection, perhaps.
Read into all of that what you will, and gauge for yourself whether such intangibles stack up to make an argument of any significance against the one-sided stats posted below.
Either way Rezai faces a huge task against the powerful Russian, but the clear underdog has a kind of lucky Cinderella charm that would make a great story if she managed to succeed.
In the other semifinal, Anne Keothavong of Great Britain faces Elena Vesnina of Russia. The British No 1 has a few points to recommend her too. One of the more unusual is that she comes into a semifinal having played only five sets of tennis against a wild card, a seed and a qualifier.
A straight sets victor in rounds one and two, she only had to play six more games in her quarterfinal before Ayumi Morita retired hurt.
There are things in her favour other than the still-fresh legs. She is hitting the ball as cleanly as anyone in the tournament, her footwork is nimble and fluid, her aggression is single-minded and she has one more very valuable commodity, upward mobility.
She comes to Auckland ranked 60 and is Britain's top player. Compare that to 2007 when, in her only other trip here, she was ranked in the high 100s and lost to New Zealand's own Shona Lee in qualifying.
Elena Vesnina of Russia meanwhile has become one of the crowd favourites in her first time here, in only three matches. She will play only her third WTA semifinal, making Auckland as she said, "a lucky city for me," but her weird quarterfinal win gives her no reason to relax.
Dementieva now remains the only heavyweight in the competition by some margin and is one clear favourite to go through today, but Auckland has proved a minefield many times for the highly-favoured in the past
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