Five-time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova kicks off her Brisbane International title defence on Emirates Day today when she locks horns with Fed Cup teammate Ekaterina Makarova on Pat Rafter Arena.
The world No.4 owns an unbeaten 6-0 record against her Russian left-handed compatriot, including a straight sets result in last year’s Australian Open semifinal.
World No.23 Makarova, though, thrives on the blue Australian hard courts having downed Serena Williams en route to the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park in 2012 before her aforementioned run to the last four in 2015.
She reached the fourth round at Roland Garros and the US Open last year and rose to No.8 in the rankings before a right leg injury curtailed her season.
Sharapova, too, struggled with injuries last season, missing four months with leg and forearm problems. In addition to her Brisbane triumph, she collected the trophy in Rome and finished runner-up to Williams at the Australian Open.
“This was a grand slam semifinal last year in Australia,” Sharapova said. “For a first match, it’s a pretty high quality match against a pretty tough opponent.”
Men’s sixth seed David Goffin will play his first match since guiding Belgium to a surprise Davis Cup final appearance.
Despite coming up short against the Brits, it capped the 25-year-old’s most impressive season to date, in which he rose to No.14 in the world with runner-up showings in ’s-Hertogenbosch and Gstaad as well as a fourth-round finish at Wimbledon. The left-handed Thomaz Bellucci, 28, secured his fourth ATP World Tour title in Geneva last season. The world No.37 is a win apiece against his Belgian opponent.
Australian world No.120 James Duckworth will contest his first match since winning last month’s Australian Open Playoff, which secured him entry into the season’s opening grand slam.
The Brisbane-based 23-year-old made a run to the quarterfinals here last year and will carry confidence having beaten his Austrian opponent, Dominic Thiem, in the pair’s only previous clash at Indian Wells in March.
The 22-year-old Thiem arrives as the youngest member of the top 20 having won his first three tour titles last year – in Nice, Umag and Gstaad.
Sam Stosur returns to Pat Rafter Arena after battling her way past Jana Cepelova yesterday.
The Australian, now ranked No.27 in the world, has won three of her five matches against Spanish No.6 seed Carla Suarez Navarro, including both meetings on hard courts, although they haven’t met in 2.5 years.
Stosur won two titles – Strasbourg and Bad Gastein – in 2015, while Suarez Navarro was runner-up three times and cracked the top 10 in April after losing to Serena Williams in the Miami final.
In the final match of the night session, Bernard Tomic will square off against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut for the first time.
Riding a career-high ranking of No.18, the 23-year-old Aussie reached the semifinals in Brisbane in 2014 and the quarterfinal last year – one of his six runs to the last eight on tour in 2015.
He defended his Bogota title and at the US Open, saved two match points in a five-set thriller over his countryman Lleyton Hewitt in the second round.
The 33-year-old Mahut won his third career title on the grass at ’s-Hertogenbosch last year, having come through qualifying to do so.