Belgian teenager Yanina Wickmayer will face the oldest player in the draw in an opening group match on Wednesday against Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm at the Bali Tournament of Champions.

The 39-year-old Date-Krumm has been experiencing a rebirth of her tennis over the past two seasons, winning a surprise title in Seoul in September to qualify for the 12-woman event.

The field at the $600 000 tournament comprises the 10 highest ranking players who have won an international title this year but who did not compete in the season-ending WTA Championships in Qatar, which finished Sunday.

There are also two wild-card spots in Bali.

Date-Krumm, part of the Asian elite during her first career which ended in the mid-1990s, received one of the two invitations to the event, which concludes Sunday at the resort of Nusa Dua on the holiday island.

She gives away nearly two decades to the 20-year-old Wickmayer, who surprised herself with a US Open semi-final, which she lost to Caroline Wozniacki.

The 18th-ranked Wickmayer earned her Bali spot by winning the clay event in Estoril, Portugal and indoors in Linz, Austria.

"I'm the oldest and she's the youngest," said Date-Krumm. "It will be a good match, we know each other's games as we train a lot together."

Another pair of Bali debutantes clash when German wild-card Sabine Lisicki opens against Aravane Rezai, one of two French players in the field along with Marion Bartoli, this week's top seed.

Bartoli will begin against Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova while in the last match on opening day, Australian Samantha Stosur is up against Hungary's Agnes Szavay.

Bartoli, losing finalist three years ago when Bali was a regular-season WTA event, will be out for a solid start in the tropics. "It won't be an easy one," said the 12th-ranked Frenchwoman.

"Everyone in the field has gotten here by winning a tournament, we all have lots of confidence."

A potential diplomatic incident was defused earlier with Israel's Shahar Peer being granted a visa by the government of largely Muslim Indonesia, which has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

But reports indicate that no display of Israeli flags will be permitted in the stands at the indoor court at the Westin Hotel.

AFP

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