Former French Open champion Anastasia Myskina arrived at Auckland to the pouring rain in preparation for the ASB Classic starting next week.
The current world No16, who has been as high as No2 in February 2004, comes to Auckland for the first time and will be seeded second behind No12 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.
But the Russian doesn't mind that Jankovic, Marion Bartoli and Daniela Hantuchova are also ranked in the top-20 and will be stern competition for the event which starts January 1 and will be live on TV ONE and on tvnz.co.nz.
"It's good for me that there are top-20 players. I need those
matches at the beginning of the year. Everyone is tough. I've never
played here before and I wanted to try something different," said
the Russian
"I've been practicing really hard and running a lot in preparation
for the start of the year. Every time I start the year different.
Last year was okay, maybe this year will be good," said Myskina,
who was the first Russian to win a Grand Slam singles title when
she won the French Open at Roland Garros in 2004.
She also was the first Russian to be ranked in the top five rankings and now has a total of 10 WTA singles titles to her credit.
In 2006 she did not win a title, but was a beaten finalist on three occasions - Istanbul, Eastbourne and Stockholm. She also made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
