The arduous globetrotting nature of the professional tennis circuit will rarely be more in evidence than next week at the WTA Zurich Open. Top seed Lindsay Davenport, having won her most recent career title in Germany a week ago, flew back home to California for just a few days before returning to Europe.
Russia's Nadia Petrova, who also played the same event in Germany, then travelled to Bangkok when she fell 6-1, 6-7, 7-5 to Nicole Vaidisova in Sunday's final. Mary Pierce defeated Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-3 in the Moscow final before both players rushed off to the airport to begin all over again in Zurich.
Even the tournament has been on the move.
Previously held in an ice-hockey stadium in the suburb of Kloten, the event takes place this year in Zurich's newly renovated Hallenstadion.
After having had just one court to stage the matches, the new venue has been converted into a two-court tennis centre, with the Centre Court offering 6,200 seats, and Court 2 offering 2,200. With many players fighting for every available point that may take them on to the end-of-season Championships, the 1.3 million dollar event features a strong field that promises few, if any, easy matches for the battle-weary competitors. Not only does the Zurich Open boast no less than four recent finalists (Davenport, winner in Filderstadt), Pierce and Schiavone (Moscow final) and Petrova (Bangkok final).
There are also Filderstadt and Moscow semi-finalist Elena Dementieva, Moscow semi-finalist Dinara Safina, and Filderstadt semi-finalist Daniela Hantuchova taking part. Such is the quality of the field that Davenport might have wished she had stayed home after seeing the draw. She faces a tough opening match, with 17th-ranked Hantuchova her likely opponent after a first round bye. Should she get through that challenge, she could then meet the in-form Schiavone or Petrova. There is more danger for the veteran American further down her half of the draw.
Svetlana Kuznetsova has been in a slump this year and is not seeded, but she could still trouble fourth seeded fellow Russian Dementieva, with the winner staying on course to meet yet another Russian, seventh seed Anastasia Myskina. Davenport would meet one of those in the semi-finals. The bottom part of the draw offers second seed Amelie Mauresmo a far easier path.
The Frenchwoman has the opportunity to put her stunning 6-1, 6-1 Moscow defeat by Schiavone behind her when she plays Japan's Shinobu Asagoe or the in-form but surely exhausted Dinara Safina in her opening match. But she too faces potential problems in the semi-finals, against third seeded Pierce or home-town favourite Patty Schnyder, seeded six. There is also an intriguing opening round match between two exciting 17-year olds, Tatiana Golovin and Ana Ivanovic.
The pair also clashed in the first round last year, with Ivanovic fighting back from 1-5 in the final set to beat the French teenager before taking Venus Williams to two tiebreaks in the next round.
Those matches established the Serb as a new name to watch, and she has since climbed into the top 20.
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