Parmentier Tops Seedings in Forest Hills

The Forest Hills Tennis Classic will celebrate its fifth year on the calendar this week, with talented Frenchwoman and two-time Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titlist Pauline Parmentier heading the seedings at the Tier IV stop.
 
Parmentier, who won her first title at the Tier IV hardcourt event in Tashkent last fall and followed it up last month with a Tier III clay court title in Bad Gastein, is the No.1 seed in Forest Hills. She has played once since Bad Gastein, falling first round at the Olympics to Dominika Cibulkova, and she will be making her Forest Hills debut this week. Trying to stop her from escaping her quarter of the main draw will be Peng Shuai, Vera Dushevina and Sofia Arvidsson.
 
Rounding out the four seeded players in the 16-draw are Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, the No.2 seed; Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, the No.3 seed; and No.4 seed Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain, seeded No.4. Dangerous floaters in the draw include another Czech, Lucie Safarova, a former champion here.
 
This is the fifth staging of this event. Elena Likhovtseva won the inaugural title in 2004, beating Benesova in the final. In 2005, Safarova outlasted Sania Mirza in an all-teenager title match. In 2006, Meghann Shaughnessy spoiled the now-retired Anna Smashnova's perfect finals record for the title. And last year, Gisela Dulko beat Virginie Razzano in the final.