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Women’s preview: it’s crowded at the top

1 January 2012, by Brisbane International Tennis

With the Brisbane International 2012 main draw beginning today, Dan Imhoff casts his expert eye over the women’s field. Tomorrow he will preview the men’s event.

Kim Clijsters faces the daunting prospect of upstaging three Grand Slam champions in succession just to reach the final as she bids to reclaim the Brisbane crown she clinched two years ago.

> Photos: Ana, Andy and the draw

> Photos: Serena has landed

If the Belgian fifth seed takes care of Romanian Simona Halep at Pat Rafter Arena this afternoon, the unseeded Ana Ivanovic is a likely second-round opponent and should the draw pan out accordingly, top seed Sam Stosur would provide an enticing quarterfinal match-up.

A semifinal tussle with fourth seed Serena Williams could well be the reward for ending Stosur’s charge.

“It’s just nice to see kind of who’s in your half, maybe in the future, but for now I don’t really think about anything like that,” Clijsters said.

“I’ve never played against [Halep] so I’m kind of in a situation where I have to focus on my game.

“I’m trying to get match rhythm … For me it’s just a matter of trying to get those matches under my belt now.

“Physically I feel good and feel like my tennis is where it should be.”

Williams makes her Brisbane debut against South African Chanelle Scheepers while glamorous Slovak Daniela Hantuchova will have a tough time of it squaring off against Fed Cup teammate, eighth seed Dominika Cibulkova, in round 1.

In the bottom half of the draw, third seed and former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone will be the first match on at Pat Rafter Arena today, taking on diminutive Ksenia Pervak, while the dancing queen, second seed Andrea Petkovic, begins her Australian summer against Israeli Shahar Peer with seventh-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova a potential quarterfinal hurdle.

> Follow the live scores

Former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic is Schiavone’s projected quarterfinal opponent and kicks off against Carla Suarez Navarro.

“The competition is going to be really tough,” Jankovic said after helping conduct the draw in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall yesterday.

“(We need to) get match-tough again because we haven’t competed for a month and a half, two months.”

Australia’s two wildcard recipients managed to dodge the seeds first up with Casey Dellacqua to meet rising Serb Bojana Jovankovski and Olivia Rogowska to face fiery Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

> View the complete draws and order of play