18 February 2013 | Tennis West
Australia’s top tennis stars will this week put their games to the test at several ATP and WTA events being staged across the globe.
Leading the charge on the women’s side is Sam Stosur, who heads to Dubai after her quarterfinal finish last week in Doha to contest the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Stosur is the No.7 seed at the WTA Premier event, and will take on Ekaterina Makarova in her opening round match.
Hoping to join Stosur in the main draw in Dubai is Olivia Rogowska, who won her first round match in the qualifying event over Fatma Al Nabhani and will next face Carla Suarez Navarro.
Anastasia Rodionova fell in her first qualifying match to Ekaterina Bychkova.
On the men’s side, the Aussie presence is strong in Memphis for the US National Indoor Tennis Championship, a 500-level event on the ATP World Tour.
Marinko Matosevic and Lleyton Hewitt are entered in the main draw, with Matosevic taking on Japan’s Go Soeda in his first round match and Hewitt to face Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu.
Meanwhile, Matt Ebdenis progressing through the qualifying draw in Memphis, defeating British wildcard Connor Glennon in straight sets and needing to win one more match to join his compatriots in the main draw.
Across in Europe, Bernard Tomic will contest the Open 13 in Marseille, France.
The 20-year-old Queenslander takes on No.8 seed Martin Klizan of Slovakia in the opening round of the ATP 250 event.