Hingis, Schnyder lead field of Gold

The return of defending champion Patty Schnyder and the comeback of three-time Australian Open champion Martina Hingis to professional tennis has made the Mondial Australian Women’s Hardcourts at the Gold Coast an intriguing WTA curtain-raising event.

Schnyder has enjoyed excellent results at the Gold Coast, winning in both 2005 and 1999. She is currently ranked at a career-high of number seven in the world, and will be keen to defend the title she currently holds.

Schnyder, who is the top seed at the Australian Hardcourts, is due to face world number 59 Virginie Razzano in her first round match.

Fellow Swiss player, Hingis, a former world number one, recommences her professional playing career at the event. Hingis’ return alone will generate an interest in the event that the Australian Hardcourts would never have experienced before.

The Swiss champion has been drawn to play Maria Vento-Kabchi (70) in her much-anticipated opening match.

Former world number one Maria Sharapova was also due to join the impressive field, but was forced to pull out from the season-opening event because of a slow recovery to a strained right shoulder she sustained in the second-half of the 2005 season after she became the first Russian-born world number one.

Even with Sharapova’s withdrawal, the event still boasts one top 10 player in Schnyder, and three of the world’s top 20, including Francesca Schiavone (13) and Dinara Safina (20).

Seeded number two, Italy’s Schiavone is at a career-high ranking of 13 and brings some impressive 2005 results into the new year. Wins over the likes of Amelie Mauresmo, Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Elena Dementieva helped her reach three Tour finals in 2005, as she looks to go one better to start off the 2006 season.

Younger sister of Russia’s male tennis star Marat Safin, Safina has also finished the year with her career-best ranking. The Russian managed two Tour titles in 2005 and enters the new season with increased expectations.

The 19-year-old Safina also experienced one of the greatest moments of her short career thus far as part of the Russian team that won the 2005 Fed Cup.

A number of dangerous players also exist in the draw, including number six seed Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama (29), promising teenager Lucie Safarova (47), and Russian Elena Bovina (61) are also capable of challenging their more prized opponents.

New South Wales teenager Sophie Ferguson, currently 252 in the world, overcame cramps, a gruelling schedule and the fight of an experienced stalwart of Australian women’s tennis, Nicole Pratt, to earn a main draw wildcard when she won the tournament’s wildcard play-off last Wednesday.

However, the 32-year-old Pratt, currently ranked 126 in the world, was rewarded the next day for her efforts by tournament organisers with the final main draw wildcard on offer.

Pratt and Ferguson, who are both keen to impress for an Australian Open main draw wildcard, will lead the Aussie charge with first round encounters against fifth seed Tatiana Golovin (24) and Iveta Benesova (50) respectively.

The Mondial Australian Women’s Hardcourts commences at the Royal Pines Resort from Sunday January 1.

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