Agnieszka, Marion Lead Maiden Monterrey Line-Up

Last week the stars of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour were playing on claycourts in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco; this week they're on the other side of the country in Monterrey, the so-called City of Mountains some 1,800 feet above sea level, for the inaugural Monterrey Open. And, with Indian Wells and Miami looming, they're switching back to hardcourts at the Sierra Madre Tennis Club.

With four of the Top 20 present, world No.10 Agnieszka Radwanska leads the charge at the $220,000 International Series event; given that two of the four cornerstone events of the new-look Tour calendar are set to take place in the next month or so, she needs to notch some confidence-boosting wins this week. Having applied her superb consistency to crack the world's elite last season, Radwanska has made an erratic start to the year: she reached the quarters in Sydney and Paris, but fell to Kateryna Bondarenko in the first round of the Australian Open and, to her sister Urszula in the first round at Dubai, where illness was a factor. As the top seed in Monterrey she should be well-placed to turn things around - but faces the most dangerous of opponents in the opening round, in the form of China's Li Na. It will be their first meeting.

No.2 seed Marion Bartoli's year has gotten off to a better start, with an injury retirement in the first round at Sydney the only real blemish. It took Victoria Azarenka to beat the 24-year-old Frenchwoman in the final at Brisbane, and since then both her losses have been to Vera Zvonareva, in the quarters of the Australian Open and two weeks ago in Dubai, where foot blisters forced another mid-match withdrawal. She hasn't won a title since Québec City in 2006, which probably means she's due.

Although third seed Flavia Pennetta failed to defend her Acapulco crown last week, there was no shame in her finals loss to great rival Venus Williams, and having burnished her hardcourt credentials with a string of impressive results over the past six months or so, she'll be tough for US veteran Jill Craybas to get past in the first round. Likewise, China's Zheng Jie has been at the peak of her powers lately, making her Top 20 debut after strong showings in Melbourne and Dubai. First up for her is Urszula Radwanska, who has been granted a wildcard.

Agnes Szavay, the fifth seed in Monterrey, struggled in 2008 and began this season with four first round losses, but signalled a turnaround last week in Acapulco, where she pushed Venus to three sets in the quarters; the 20-year-old Hungarian opens against France's Pauline Parmentier. Iveta Benesova, one of five Czechs in the field this week and a semifinal victim of Pennetta in Acapulco, is seeded sixth; Israel's Shahar Peer promises to be a super-charged first round rival for her. Argentina's Gisela Dulko is the No.7 seed and Russia's Maria Kirilenko rounds out the seeds at No.8

The event's other wildcards are young Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova, a recent semifinalist in Pattaya City; and home favorite Melissa Torres Sandoval, who faces a tough task against Lucie Safarova.