CARA BLACK, the most decorated female tennis player in Zimbabwe, will tomorrow officially make her comeback to professional tennis when she opens her campaign at the ASB Classic Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour Event in Auckland, New Zealand.
Report By DANIEL NHAKANISO SPORTS REPORTER
ASB Classic Women’s WTA Tour event, which runs from today until January 5, has a prize has a prize fund of $235 000.
Black, who will be partnering Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova in the women’s doubles, was at the weekend drawn against the pair of Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova and Belarus’ Yanina Wickmayer.
If Black and her partner Rodionova clear the first hurdle, they would have set up a date against either the New Zealand pair of Paige Hourigan and Claudia Williams or England’s Heather Watson and New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic.
Black, who retired last year with a world ranking of number 77, was recently given a doubles wildcard for the tournament which enabled her to make a return to the tour after almost a year following the birth of her first child Lachlan.
The three-time Zimbabwe Sportsperson of the Year represented Zimbabwe at the Olympic Games in 2000 (Sydney, Australia), 2004 (Athens, Greece) and 2008 in Beijing, China.
The 33-year-old, one of the biggest names in doubles tennis, was ranked number one in the world in 2005.
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She has won one WTA Tour singles title and 54 career titles including five Grand Slams doubles and five mixed doubles titles.
In October 2012, Black competed on two ITF $25 000 events in Australia with Arina Rodionova.
The pair won the title in Traralgon, defeating Ashleigh Barty and Sally Peers in the final. However, Black and Rodionova lost to the same team in the finals of Bendigo the following week.
By coming out of retirement, Black is set to join other top female players such as the former World number one air of Justine Henin and Clijsters.
Clijsters won her second US Open title in 2009 after coming out of retirement following the birth of her daughter, Jada Elle, in 2008.
