Zimbabwe's player Cara Black and her American partner Liezel Huber will
get their title defence of the Australian Open women's tennis doubles crown up
and running with a clash against Anne Kremer of Luxembourg and Pauline
Parmentier of France in Melbourne later this week.
Black and Hube are the top seeds at the first Grand Slam of theyear which got
underway on Monday, according to local media The Herald on Wednesday.
And the luck of the draw smiled on them at the weekend when they were paired
against the unseeded pair of Kremer and Parmentier in the opening round.
Black and Huber were the standout team on the Sony Ericsson WTATour last year
winning nine titles including two Grand Slams, the Australian Open and
Wimbledon.
And they are among the pre-tournament favorites in Melbourne where they will
first showcase their talents in their first round outing against Kremer and
Parmentier.
But they will first have to shake off their disappointment of failing to land
two small tournaments in Gold Coast and Sydney during their preparations for the
Australian Open.
They first fell in the semi-finals of the Mondial Australian Women's Harcourt
tournament in Gold Coast two weeks ago before going out in the second round of
the Medibank International in Sydney last week.
In Sydney, Black and Huber, who were the top seeds, were upset by the
unseeded pair of Alicia Molik of Australia and China's Tiantian Sun.
