Four stars of the game take to the court on the first day of the ASB Classic women's tennis tournament in Auckland.
Cori Gauff Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Twenty-three-time Grand Slam Champion Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, American teen Cori 'Coco' Gauff and former world No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard are all in action.
Fifteen-year-old Gauff will get her first hit out of the year against last year's semi-finalist Victoria Kuzmova in the first round of singles on centre court.
The teen captured the headlines in June by firstly becoming the youngest to ever qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon, then by beating tennis legend and her idol Venus Williams in the first round. Since making it to the second week of Wimbledon the teen has continued to break records becoming the youngest player to win a WTA title since 2004 and becoming the youngest player ranked in the top 100.
Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki team up for their debut doubles appearance together. Together the duo has 102 WTA singles titles, 24 grand slam titles and spent a combined 390 weeks at number one. The superstar pair will play against Japanese pair Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya third on centre court.
In the last game on centre court Canadian Bouchard plays Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium in the first round of singles.
Bouchard shot to stardom in 2014, reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open & Roland Garros, then the final of Wimbledon. The former world No.5 comes back to Auckland as defending doubles champion and is looking to advance further than her quart-final appearance in 2019.
Two New Zealanders will be playing amongst the star's, youngster Valentina Ivanov and 2019 doubles finalist Paige Hourigan.
Ivanov will be the first of the New Zealand entourage on court, playing against Swiss Jil Teichmann.
Eighteen-year-old Ivanov has just come off her first semester of College Tennis in America and comes back to Auckland with more confidence and with the crowd behind her.
New Zealand number one Hourigan will then take the court after receiving a wildcard into the doubles draw. Hourigan is playing with the former doubles world No. 1 Sara Errani of Italy.
Seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia has withdrawn due to personal reasons. She is replaced in the draw by the next player eligible to be seeded, Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium.
Twenty-three-year-old Ostapenko won the French Open in 2017.
- ASB Classic