Tournament Preview: 's-Hertogenbosch

Three Top 10 players, all hailing from Russia, headline in 's-Hertogenbosch this week at the $175,000 Ordina Open, one of two Sony Ericsson WTA Tour events the week before the season's third Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon. All of them have reached the title match here before, but only one of them has taken that ultimate step into the winner's circle.
 
Elena Dementieva, Anna Chakvetadze and Dinara Safina - the No.1, No.2 and No.3 seeds this week, respectively - have all won titles so far this season (Dementieva at Dubai, Chakvetadze at Paris [Indoors], Safina at Berlin) and are currently in the Top 10. Although all of them will certainly be heavily favored to reach their projected semifinal slots this week, one of them has gone one step further than the others, and that would be Chakvetadze, who won the Ordina Open title last year (beating Jelena Jankovic in three sets in the final). Dementieva and Safina have both been one win away, however, with Dementieva finishing runner-up in 2002 (to Eleni Daniilidou) and Safina finishing runner-up in 2006 (to Michaella Krajicek). As the Top 2 seeds, Dementieva and Chakvetadze received a first round bye; Safina opens against Pauline Parmentier.
 
Rounding out the seeds are Italy's Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, Russia's Maria Kirilenko, Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik and the Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko. Pennetta and Bondarenko have had the best prior performances of the group, both reaching the quarterfinals last year; Schiavone, Kirilenko and Srebotnik have never passed the second round.
 
There are a number of players to watch in the unseeded contingent, one of whom is Krajicek, who won this title in 2006 and who is coming off her best result of the year in Birmingham, where she reached the third round (having begun the year 0-10). Another strong 's-Hertogenbosch performer is Klara Zakopalova, who was a runner-up here in 2004 (to Mary Pierce) and came back to take the title in 2005 (beating Lucie Safarova in the final). Two more players to watch are the two finalists from the grass court event in Birmingham this past week, Kateryna Bondarenko and Yanina Wickmayer.
 
This is the 13th staging of the Ordina Open. Former champions are Anke Huber (1996), Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie (1997), Julie Halard-Decugis (1998), Kristina Brandi (1999), Martina Hingis (2000), Justine Henin (2001), Daniilidou (2002), Kim Clijsters (2003), Mary Pierce (2004), Zakopalova (2005), Krajicek (2006) and Chakvetadze (2007).