Tamarine is likely to be seeded in Australian Open

Defending champion and world No 9 Maria Sharapova, No 20 Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and No 28 Li Na of China all decided to skip the year's first Major, paving the way for the world No 35 to be seeded at 32. The seeding means that the Thai No 1 will not have to play any top 16 player before the round of 32.

"It's good news for me as I don't have to face tough players in the first two rounds," said Tamarine who is practising in Melbourne after early loss in the warm-up tournament in Hobart.

"But my concern is to try to win the first match. I hope for a good draw on Friday," said Tamarine who reached the fourth round in 1998.

Meanwhile in the men's qualifying first round, Danai Udomchoke cruised to a 6-1 6-3 win over Serbian Boris Pashanski in just 64 minutes.

"I hardly missed and finished points the way I wanted to. Besides, he made so many mistakes," said Danai who next takes on Slovak Pavol Cervenak, a 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 6-4 winner over Briton Joshua Goodball.

"I've never seen him before but I heard that he serves well. So my plan is to return his serves as many as possible and maintain the level like I did today."

Safina feels the heat

Russian world No 3 Dinara Safina had a blast of what might confront her in next week's Australian Open as she battled fierce heat to reach the semi-finals of the Sydney International. Safina reached the semi-finals of the Sydney WTA tournament for the first time in wearing down tenacious French opponent Alize Cornet, 6-3 6-4.

The score belied the on-court battle with Safina taking 1hr 48 min to subdue 18-year-old Cornet in air temperatures hovering around 36 Celsius.

"Obviously, you cannot prepare in Europe with the same conditions as the sun," she said. "The problem with the sun is just more dangerous here than in the US Open," she said.