Jan 15, 2007, 17:15 GMT
Melbourne, Australia - U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova and her fellow former world No. 1s Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis will be among the women seeing opening-round action Tuesday at the 2007 Australian Open.
The top-seeded Sharapova, a two-time Grand Slam champion, will open her stay here in Melbourne against France's Camille Pin. The Russian Sharapova reached the semifinals here in each of the last two years.
A fourth-seeded Clijsters, appearing in her final Aussie Open, will battle Russian Vasilisa Bardina. Clijsters is fresh off her title in Sydney, while the upstart Bardina was a runner-up in Hobart last week.
The 2005 U.S. Open champion Clijsters has reached at least the semifinals in her last four trips to Melbourne, where she was the 2004 runner-up to her fellow Belgian stalwart Justine Henin-Hardenne. Clijsters has already announced that 2007 will be her final season on the WTA Tour.
A sixth-seeded Hingis, a six-time Aussie Open finalist, will meet France's Nathalie Dechy on Day 2. The five-time major champion Hingis captured this Grand Slam event back-to-back-to-back from 1997-99 and was the runner-up here from 2000-02.
Other top seeds slated for Tuesday play are No. 8 Swiss Patty Schnyder and No. 9 Russian Dinara Safina, while 11 other seeds will open their stays in Melbourne, including No. 12 Serbian Ana Ivanovic, No. 15 Slovak Daniela Hantuchova and No. 24 Aussie crowd favorite Samantha Stosur.
© 2007 The Sports Network
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