Queen of the court arrives - quietly

Her $330,000 engagement ring sparkled, but Maria Sharapova kept the verbal gems to a minimum yesterday.

Sharapova's arrival in Auckland for the ASB Classic drew plenty of media attention, but for now, the most photographed sportswoman in the world was giving her renowned vocal chords little exercise, declining to do any interviews.

Dressed in an olive green top, black jacket, dark grey trousers and a grey scarf, she was welcomed by tournament director Richard Palmer and breezed past, straight to a waiting car. That was the end of the Sharapova sightings for the day as a scheduled practice session was cancelled amid heavy rain.

The 23-year-old former world No 1 arrived without her fiance, Sasha Vujacic, the Slovenian basketball star and two-time NBA title winner. He was recently traded from the LA Lakers to the New Jersey Nets.

Still, her arrival was enough to catch some people unawares at Auckland International Airport yesterday morning.

"Is that Maria Sharapova?" a Japanese tourist asked incredulously of her partner as they sat at a fast-food outlet in the arrivals hall.

Sharapova recently signed an eight-year contract with Nike worth more than $130 million, making her the most lucratively endorsed sportswoman.

The glamorous Russian, a three-time grand slam title winner, is the top seed for the event starting on Monday. She goes into the tournament with a ranking of 18 after a year in which she came back from a shoulder injury.

Palmer said Sharapova's appearance at the tournament had created big public interest, with ticket sales well in advance of previous years at the same stage.

He was sure any tickets left available for her scheduled sessions would be quickly snapped up.

Sharapova will find out who her first-round opponent is when the draw is made on Saturday.

Palmer has been the classic's tournament director on 12 previous occasions and he said there hadn't been a bigger attraction in that time.

"Anna Kournikova was a big drawcard, and we've had Mary Pierce and Lindsay Davenport, who were big as well," he said. "But she's by far the biggest."

Also missing out on a hit yesterday was New Zealand's Marina Erakovic, whose appearance at the classic had been under a cloud since she suffered a wrist injury in October.

Erakovic confirmed she would definitely be playing, taking a wildcard, along with fellow Kiwi Sacha Jones. "I've been through a whole training programme and I'm good to go," she said.

"Now I'm just waiting for the [overseas] girls to come down and play some practice sets, but otherwise the body is good and I'm hitting the ball well, so everything is on track."

Now ranked at 333, Erakovic's last match was in the United States on October 19 when she retired at one set all against Canada's Sharon Fichman. The week before she had her best tournament of the year, making it to the semifinals of a US$50,000 tournament in Canada.

With Erakovic being a wildcard, there is as much chance of her getting a first round draw against the likes of Sharapova or the tournament's other former world No 1 Dinara Safina. Erakovic was undaunted by that prospect.

"I've always said I don't really think about that and whoever I get, I get," she said.

"If I did get Sharapova, it would be a good match. Obviously Dinara has also had a tough year this year. She struggled with injuries and a few other things.

"It's tough for everyone out there and especially in the first tournament of the year when everyone's rusty and has to get into a groove."