LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg - They were the stars of a glittering finals night at Flushing Meadows last month, and as the No.1 and No.2 seeds at the $220,000 BGL Luxembourg Open, Caroline Wozniacki and Kim Clijsters may well meet again in next weekend's championship match. If they do, Wozniacki will want to improve on her tight runner-up finish to Elena Dementieva here last year, while five-time champion Clijsters might be forgiven a sense of entitlement.
Certainly there is work to be done before then, but it can't be denied that among the Tour's up-and-coming stars world No.6 Wozniacki has been the standout this year. Still only 19, she has won three titles - her career haul now stands at six - and performed more consistently than her youthful peers. Intriguingly, the smiling Dane opens against the even younger Melanie Oudin, who made major headlines of her own by reaching the quarters at the US Open. It was, of course, Wozniacki who ended the American teen's run; revenge could be in the air.
At 26 a grande dame by comparison, comeback queen Clijsters first wore the Luxembourg crown way back in 1999 and she owned the event three years running during her (first) heyday earlier this decade. She last lifted the trophy here in 2005, and the Belgian favorite must rate her chances of doing so again in front of what is practically a home crowd. The US Open champion's first round opponent is a familiar face, too: Meghann Shaughnessy, who is clawing her way back from injury at the age of 30.
Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, champion at Fès in the spring, will pursue her second title of the season as the No.3 seed while Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, runner-up to Ana Ivanovic in Luxembourg in 2007, is seeded fourth. When the new rankings are released on Monday Yanina Wickmayer is set to leapfrog them both into the Top 20, thanks to her title run at Linz, but for now she'll be an in-form No.5 seed.
Rounding out the seeds are Germany's Sabine Lisicki at No.6; surging Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko is seeded seventh and looking to emulate her sister Alona, who triumphed here in 2006; and at No.8, Spain's Carla Suárez Navarro is the only seed still searching for her first Tour title.
As well as Clijsters, wildcards have gone to Polona Hercog of Slovenia and Mandy Minella of Luxembourg.
Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder headline the doubles field as top seeds. In the first round of the singles Groenefeld must face Katarina Srebotnik - the very player with whom she won the doubles title at Linz last week.
Medina Garrigues and Wickmayer have already been confirmed as participants at next month's Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. The BGL Luxembourg Open is the last International-level event of the year - and so the final chance for other non-titlists to secure a berth.
