Packed Field Heads To Rome

Eight of the world's Top 10 players will descend on the Foro Italico this coming week for the prestigious $2-million Internazionali BNL d'Italia. Headlining the pack are current world No.1 Dinara Safina and recent world No.1s Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic.

Safina rose to No.1 in the world on April 20 and will be spending her third week there during this year's Internazionali BNL d'Italia. She missed last year's tournament due to a back injury but has performed exceptionally here before, finishing runner-up in 2006; she was ranked No.19 and seeded No.16 that time and upset three Top 10 players in a row before falling to Martina Hingis in the final. The Russian is the No.1 seed this time.

Williams and Jankovic topped the rankings this year before Safina ascended, Jankovic holding it through the end of the Australian Open and Williams having it from then until April 20. Although they are seeded behind the Russian at No.2 and No.3 they hold a few things over her, most notably both taking titles already this year (Williams at the Australian Open, Jankovic at Marbella) and they are both former champions here in Rome, the American winning in 2002 and the Serb winning the last two titles consecutively, in 2007 and 2008.

The fourth seed will be Venus Williams, who has won two titles this year - at Dubai and Acapulco, her 40th and 41st career singles titles on the Tour - and is also a former winner here, taking it all of 10 years ago in 1999. Rounding out the Top 8 seeds in order are Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova. All eight players receive first round byes.

Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Marion Bartoli, Flavia Pennetta, Alizé Cornet, Zheng Jie, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Kaia Kanepi are seeded No.9 through No.16. Cornet has especially fond memories of this tournament, making it all the way to the final as a qualifier here one year ago. Another name to watch is Amélie Mauresmo, a champion here in 2004 and 2005 and recent winner of her 25th career Tour singles title at Paris [Indoors] in February.

This is the 65th time Rome has been a Tour stop, the first 64 stagings coming from 1930 to 1935, 1950 to 1985 and from 1987 to 2008. Chris Evert has the record for most titles in the Open Era with five, although Gabriela Sabatini and Conchita Martínez aren't far behind with four each.