Tournament Picks – Brisbane and Auckland

This blog will be attempting to predict the winners of each WTA tournament for the year. "Attempt" is the definitive word as I'm not sure I can keep this up on a weekly basis. For a 32 – player draw, I will be picking 4 seeded players and 2 unseeded players who I think will have the best chance of winning the tournament.

Brisbane International Picks:

Top Half Seeds: Kim Clijsters (#1 seed), Daniela Hantuchova (#4)
Bottom Half Seeds: Ana Ivanovic (#3), Melinda Czink (#7)
Unseeded: Justine Henin, Sesil Karatantcheva

Notes: It is tough not to pick the #2 seed, world #20 Nadia Petrova but if she is drawn to play a 7-time grand slam champion in the first round who beat her in straight sets last month, I'd go with the latter anytime. I also gave my nod to world #132 and qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan – the former promising young star who was banned for 2 years due to drug use. She did beat Venus Williams at the French Open in 2005 to reach the quarterfinals and was ranked as high as world #35 as a 16-year old.

Potential Interesting Match-up: Clijsters vs Henin in the finals – the battle of the Belgian comeback queens

ASB Classic Picks:

Top Half Seeds: Flavia Penetta (#1 seed), Aravane Rezai (#7)
Bottom Half Seeds: Na Li (#2), Yanina Wickmayer (#3)
Unseeded: Sania Mirza, Kimiko Date Krumm

Notes: For my unseeded picks, I chose 2 Asian players who would feel at home in New Zealand. The only top 4 seed I didn't pick is world #17 Francesca Schiavone. I put more premium to Rezai's current form – her winning the Bali Championship last November is hard to ignore, plus, she did make the semifinals of this tournament last year, losing to eventual champion Elena Dementieva.

Potential Interesting Match-up: Li vs Mirza in the finals – the 2 most populous nations in the world should start the tennis calendar with a women tennis champion

It would be fun to see whether the finalists will be coming from my top 6 picks in each tournament. I hope so, but again, the only predictable thing about tennis is its unpredictability.