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Italy's Flavia Pennetta celebrates - Source: Reuters -
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One of the glamour stars of women's tennis, Flavia Pennetta, has confirmed her appearance for January's ASB Classic.
Italian player Pennetta is the current world No.12 will make her main draw debut in Auckland after her most successful year ever.
The 27-year-old had a great year of results in 2009 including winning two titles and beating a number of top ranked players.
The first tournament win was in Palermo where she defeated countrywoman Sara Errani in the final, then in her next tournament in Los Angeles she scored successive victories over Nadia Petrova, Vera Zvonareva, Maria Sharapova and Australian Sam Stousr for the title.
These results culminated in a career high ranking at the end of August of No.10, the first Italian to ever reach that mark.
Pennetta continued her good form in her following two tournaments with semifinal appearances at Cincinnati and New Haven which included a win over Venus Williams.
The following week she reached the quarters at the US Open with a three set win over Zvonareva before being beaten by Serena Williams. This was her second quarterfinal appearance in New York in a row.
Other top results in 2009 included a finals appearance at Acapulco where she was stopped by Venus Williams as well as a semi-final result at Linz. She also reached the semis at Bastad and Stuttgart where she had wins over Petrova and Jankovic.
The winner of eight WTA Tour singles and six doubles titles Pennetta is also a strong supporter of her nations Fed Cup team.
She played in the 2009 Fed Cup final against the United States just over a week ago winning both her singles matches in her nations triumph and was also a member of the Italian winning team in 2006.
"Flavia is a real coup for the ASB Classic. This year she has not only beaten top ten players but broke into that elite group herself.
She has an engaging personality and an entertaining style of play which I believe the tennis public in New Zealand will really enjoy," says ASB Classic Tournament Director, Brenda Perry.
Already confirmed for the ASB Classic are the world No.1 doubles and multi-Grand Slam winning pair of Cara Black (Zimbabwe) and Liezel Huber (United States).
While world No.15, Li Na from China plus No.22 and 2009 finalist Elena Vesnina from Russia will be seeds in singles at the tournament.
