Jan 19, 2007, 18:40 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 third-round action Saturday at the 2007 Australian Open.
The top-seeded Sharapova, a two-time Grand Slam champion, will battle 30th- seeded Italian Tathiana Garbin. The two have never met in a WTA Tour-level match.
The 19-year-old Sharapova is seeking her third straight trip to the semifinals at Melbourne Park. And overall, she's won her last nine Grand Slam matches, including her title run in New York last year.
A fourth-seeded Clijsters, appearing in her final Aussie Open, will take on 29th-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko. The Belgian star is fresh off her title in Sydney 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 she will retire from professional tennis after this season.
A sixth-seeded Hingis, a six-time Aussie Open finalist, will meet Japan's Aiko Nakamura. 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 Saturday play are No. 8 Swiss Patty Schnyder and No. 9 Russian Dinara Safina. Schnyder, who's reached at least the quarterfinals here the last three years, will tangle with heavy Aussie favorite Alicia Molik, while Safina, the younger sister of former men's Aussie Open champ Marat Safin, will be opposed by 19th-seeded Chinese Na Li.
Four other seeds will also play their third-rounders, including No. 12 Russian Anna Chakvetadze, No. 13 Serbian Ana Ivanovic and No. 15 Slovak Daniela Hantuchova. Ivanovic will lock horns with 22nd-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, while Hantuchova will meet American Ashley Harkleroad.
© 2007 The Sports Network
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