Events / Barry Millns / 10 March 2009 /

With the Williams' sisters absent from Indian Wells once again, the winner's market is dominated by Eastern European players, says Barry Millns. So, with Venus and Serena ensconced in the PR department, will Dinara Safina bounce back from her dismal showing in Dubai?

Sadly it's no surprise that the first significant women's tournament of the season in the United States will again be missing the leading Americans - Serena and Venus Williams.

The sisters have consistently shunned the event in Indian Wells ever since Serena was booed in the 2001 final, two days after Venus had controversially withdrawn five minutes before their scheduled semi-final against each other, citing knee tendonitis.

Back then, the withdrawal sparked renewed speculation that the result of matches between the sisters was predetermined by their father, Richard, which the family denied. He in turn accused members of the crowd of racially abusing his daughters and they have not been seen at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden since.

This year, for the first time on the WTA Tour, Top 10 players who miss any of the four Premier Mandatory events, such as Indian Wells, without a legitimate medical excuse, are supposed to be fined and suspended (from the next two premium tournaments). But under new stipulations any player declining to play an event for personal reasons is now allowed to do so providing they perform certain promotional activities for the tournament.

So while the 96-player draw will be missing the world No.1 and No.5 we are led to believe that Serena and Venus will avoid suspensions by being part of the event in some off-court capacity! Well, whatever the odds are on that happening, the winner's market is top-heavy with Eastern Europeans.

The top eight seeds in the newly sponsored BNP Paribas Open all hail from the former eastern bloc with four Russians, two Serbs, one Pole and one Belarusian. World No.2 Dinara Safina (currently trading at [4.0] joint-third favourite) heads the field in her sixth appearance and will be hoping to bounce back from her dismal showing in Dubai following her painful demolition by Serena Williams in the final of the Australian Open.

The 22-year-old Muscovite made the quarter-finals in 2006 and with a bye into the second round, like all the other 31 seeds, will face either Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova [100.00] or the Kiwi Marina Erakovic [100.00] in her first match this week. Assuming Safina has done some much needed work on her serve and gets past either of those two, the biggest threats to her reaching the semi-finals could come from the likes of in-form Marion Bartoli [5.0], Anna Chakvetadze [20.0] or Alona Bondarenko [50.0], all of whom won their last matches against her.

Fourth seed Vera Zvonoreva [4.9] is the highest ranked player in the second quarter of the draw and while she lost to Safina in her first grand slam semi-final in Melbourne in January, she followed that up by winning the title in Pattaya City and reaching the quarter-finals in Dubai. She has also made the quarters in Indian Wells three times in four visits but that record pales by comparison with the woman she's seeded to meet there this time, the sixth seed and runner-up of the past two years Svetlana Kuznestova [4.0].

The current favourite, though, is fellow Russian Elena Dementieva [3.0], winner of two titles already this season as well as runner-up in Paris and another semi-finalist in Melbourne. The 2006 finalist in Indian Wells could face twice-champion Daniela Hantuchova in the third round and is seeded to face defending champion Ana Ivanovic [4.9] in the last eight, the Serb hoping to kick-start her season after teaming up with new coach Craig Kardon.

Last year Ivanovic beat Jelena Jankovic [3.75] in the semi-finals. Now the latter, ranked world No.3 and the second seed, who has reached only one semi-final so far this year, will open her campaign against either Poland's Marta Domochowska [50.0] or the dangerously talented Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova [100.00].

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