Clijsters Will Start Off Against Pratt

One of the more-anticipated aspects of Monday’s women’s draw at the Pacific Life Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden was where Kim Clijsters of Belgium would land.

With 32 seeded players, there is generally little drama in the early rounds. But Clijsters, who hurt her left wrist at Indian Wells last year and later needed surgery, has played one tournament in 2005, dropping out of the top 100.

So, Clijsters, the Indian Wells champion in 2003, will be one of the few leading players to have a first-round match.

She will face Nicole Pratt of Australia in the opening round and is in the same section of the draw as second-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France. If form holds, they could meet in the fourth round.

The final day of qualifying is today, and main-draw action starts Wednesday.

The top eight seeded players are last year’s runner-up Lindsay Davenport, Mauresmo, Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova of Russia, Elena Dementieva of Russia, U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Nadia Petrova of Russia, Nathalie Dechy of France and Elena Bovina of Russia. Vera Zvonareva, who would have been among the top eight, withdrew before Monday’s draw.

Davenport is in the same quarter of the draw as Dechy. If they met, it would be a rematch of their Australian Open semifinal, which Davenport won in three sets in January. Sharapova is in the same half of the draw as Davenport, but has several potentially difficult opponents in her section, including Dinara Safina of Russia, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Petrova.

In the other half of the draw are Mauresmo and Kuznetsova.

-- Lisa Dillman