Zoe Hives makes her first tournament appearance in almost a year in her hometown of Ballarat this week.
The international is women’s singles top seed for the Ballarat White AMT – an event transferred from the Bendigo Tennis Centre while it undergoes a redevelopment – at Ballarat Regional Tennis Centre.
Hives returns after what has been nothing less than horror injury run for the 20-year-old.
Knee, back, hip and hamstring troubles have kept Hives from Kingston off the court at his level since the Australian Open qualifiers in January.
She is using this event and the Ballarat Open Gold AMT, which begins on Saturday, to ease back into tournament play.
With just the 10 entries in the women’s singles, Hives will not hit the court until Thursday.
She has an opening round bye and will then face the winner of Bianca Jones and Tiffany Iurato in a quarter final.
Ballarat youngster Emily Tinker is also competing. She has a first round bye, but then runs into third seed Monika Rajici.
Jeremy Beale is top seed in a 57-strong men’s singles field.
Beale, who has a career-high Australian ranking of 36, is fresh from a title win in the Boroondara Masters AMT.
The Ballarat White AMT and JT tournament has attracted 263 players across 16 events.
The men’s singles begins with qualifying rounds on Monday, when junior singles and doubles will also be featured.
ENTRIES
12/under boys' singles: 43
12/under girls' singles: 24
12/under boys' doubles: 20
12/under girls' doubles: 8
14/under boys' singles: 54
14/under girls' singles: 27
14/under boys' doubles: 23
14/under girls' doubles: 11
16/under boys' singles: 27
16/under girls' singles: 11
16/under boys' doubles: 11
16/under girls' doubles: 4
AMT men's singles: 57
AMT women's singles: 10
AMT men's doubles: 17
AMT women's doubles: 2
TOP SEEDS
WOMEN’S SINGLES: Zoe Hives 1, Sasha Alexander 2, Monika Rajicic 3, Giorgie Jones 4
MEN’S SINGLES: Jeremy Beale 1, Matthew Leffler 2, Jeremy Taylor 3, Josh Charlton 4, Dale Sutherland 5, Pierce Gilheany 6, James Brushfield 7, Bevan Rossjohn 8
