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Flavia Pennetta - Source: Reuters -
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Some intriguing first-round match-ups are in prospect with the ASB Classic securing arguably the strongest field its history, tournament director Brenda Perry said on Wednesday.
All eight seeds, headed by Italian world No. 12 Flavia Pennetta, are ranked in the top 30, a first for the WTA Tour event, which this summer runs from January 4 to 9 in Auckland.
As well, 14 of the 24 direct acceptances in the 32-strong main draw have won at least one tour title.
"This is an outstanding feature and speaks to the real depth of the field this year," Perry said.
"I think we are going to see some amazing first-round matches as a result."
Apart from Pennetta, who is coming off the best season in her career, three other players are in the top 20 - China's Li Na, Italian Francesca Schiavone and Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.
Other seeds for the $NZ308,000 event include the losing finalists of the past two years, Russian Elena Vesnina and France's Aravane Rezai.
Perry also highlighted some notable names among the non-seeds, such as Russian Anna Chakvetadze.
Seven titles
Now ranked 69th, Chakvetadze was once as high as No. 5 and has seven singles titles to her name.
Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, 19, the world No 50, already has one title and was as high as No 11 in February.
"The field is one that has a great balance between new and familiar faces," Perry said.
"I think it's going to mean some very entertaining tennis, extremely colourful characters and another step forward for the ASB Classic."
The four wildcards have yet to be assigned, but two are expected to go to New Zealand's two leading players -- Sacha Jones and Marina Erakovic.
Jones, 19, has had a great run on the ITF circuit, with a 24-match winning streak bringing her four consecutive titles and a runner-up finish, and she has risen to 167 in the world.
Last summer, she surprised many by turning down a wild card for the Classic to concentrate on her training.
Erakovic, 21, made it to the Classic semifinals two years ago and last year attained a career-high ranking of 49.
But she suffered a hip injury in March, spent six months on the sidelines and is now ranked 235.
ASB Classic seeds with rankings: Flavia Pennetta (Italy, 12), Li Na (China, 15), Francesca Schiavone (Italy, 17), Virginie Razzano (France, 19), Elena Vesnina (Russia, 24), Aravane Rezai (France, 26), Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain, 28), Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia, 29).
All the action from the 2010 ASB Classic will be live to ONE Sport every day and if you can't get to a television screen it will also be streamed live here on tvnz.co.nz
