Elena Dementieva

The Top 2 seeds made winning starts at the ASB Classic on Tuesday, as Elena Dementieva and Caroline Wozniacki both won their first matches of the week in straight sets. Home favorite Marina Erakovic also advanced.

World number four Elena Dementieva had to battle back from a big first set deficit to avoid a shock opening round exit at the hands of Taiwan's Yung-Jan Chan in the ASB Classic women's tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, on Tuesday.

The tournament's top seed fought back from 5-1 down in the first set to take the match 7-5, 6-3 after Chan threw everything at her more favoured opponent.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark had a much easier passage through to the second round, dispatching Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-0.

The first Women's Tennis Association rankings of 2009 showed on Monday an unchanged top 10 still dominated by Russian players.

Serbia's Jelena Jankovic tops the weekly list, followed by Serena Williams of the United States, but then Russian women take six of the next nine slots. Dinara Safina is third and Elena Dementieva fourth, followed by Vera Zvonareva in seventh, Svetlana Kuznetsova eighth and Maria Sharapova ninth.

Nadia Petrova is still knocking on the door of the top 10 in eleventh spot.

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva is looking to the ASB Classic in Auckland starting on Monday to build confidence as she attempts to end her Australian Open jinx later in the month.

Dementieva, the top seed in Auckland and World No 4, said she wants as much court time as possible before the Australian Open, the only Grand Slam in which she has failed to reach the quarter-finals.

Her best return in Melbourne has been the last 16 which the 27-year-old Russian has achieved four times, including last year.

The 24th edition of the ASB Classic graces the hardcourts of the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland, New Zealand this week, with world No.4 Elena Dementieva and Top 10 hopeful Caroline Wozniacki headlining the field.

Top seed Elena Dementieva is hoping a good week at the ASB Classic, which begins in Auckland today, will lead to a change of tennis fortunes in the year's first Grand Slam.

Dementieva, the world No.4, is the highest ranked player in the Classic's history.

After Auckland, she heads to Sydney next week in her final build-up before the Australian Open in a fortnight.

The Victorian capital is the only Grand Slam venue where Dementieva, a finalist at the French and the US Open in 2004, has failed to reach at least the last four.

As the seeds yesterday lined up before the draw was made for this week's ASB Classic, Elena Dementieva commanded attention.

She's tall (180cm) and, as the world No 4, she's also the highest-ranked player to ever grace the Auckland event.

New Zealand's Marina Erakovic quickly realised her mistake in standing at the head of the queue and scuttled to the other end beside tournament eighth seed, and the much shorter, Carla Suarez Navarro.

Russian tennis star Elena Dementieva will make a little bit of history when she plays the ASB Tennis Classic next week.

The world number four is the highest ranked player to compete in the Auckland tournament.

Elena Dementieva had only been in New Zealand for ten hours and she was back on court preparing for her first tournament of 2009.

“I’m sure its going to be tough competition even though I'm the highest female ranking player here,” Dementieva says.

World number four Elena Dementieva and 12th ranked Caroline Wozniacki arrived in Auckland on the same flight last night to compete in next week's ASB Classic tennis tournament.

While weary, Dementieva is excited about the prospect of playing in New Zealand for the first time.

Qualifying starts today with New Zealanders Kairangi Vano and Dianne Hollands playing each other in the first round.

Women tennis players will earn more prize money than their male counterparts at next week's Sydney International tournament.

Of the near US$1.1 million (£686,000) up for grabs, the women will be vying for US$600,000, while the men will be playing for $484,750.

Tournament director Craig Watson said the discrepancy was due to the category of the event on the respective ATP and WTA tours.