Maria's first events of 2008

Before making her 2008 Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open in the middle of January, Maria will play 2 warm-up events in Asia.  Maria will first play an exhibition in Singapore on December 30th and then travel to Hong Kong to play an exhibition there which begins on January 2nd.

Maria will take on world #6 Anna Chakvetadze of Russia in Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.  This will be Maria's 7th match against her compatriot and she has won each time.

Then Maria will play the JB GROUP Classic 2008 in Hong Kong.  This event features 8 players and has 3 rounds.  5 top 10 players are entered here and Maria will be the #2 seed and face Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the quarters, Maria has never played Wozniacki before.  This match will be played on January 2nd at 18.30 Hong Kong time.  Maria has played this event 4 times before and reached the final here in January.

Maria will then take a week off to prepare for the 1st Grand Slam of the year at the Australian Open in Melbourne which begins on January 14th.