TOKYO (AFP) - Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova returns to the scene of her first WTA titles to spearhead the field at this week's Japan Open tennis tournament.
The 17-year-old Russian heart-throb posted her first WTA doubles title with Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand here a year ago and added her first singles title the following day.
Sharapova has since enjoyed victories at Quebec City and Birmingham and trounced former world number one Serena Wiliams of the United States in the Wimbledon final for her first Grand Slam victory.
On Sunday, Sharapova, losing semi-finalist to Russia's US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in Beijing two weeks ago, defeated Marta Domachowska of Poland 6-1, 6-1 to win the Korea Open for her fifth career singles title.
Her biggest threat in the 860,000-dollar even should come from second-seeded French teenager Tatiana Golovin after the withdrawals of Jelena Dokic of Serbia and Montenegro and two-time Japan Open champion Amy Frazier of the United States.
The top-seeded Russian is in the top half with US fifth seed Meghann Shaughnessy, third seed Shinobu Asagoe of Japan and eighth seed Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain.
Golovin was drawn with seventh seed Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic, fourth seed Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico, and sixth seed Nicole Pratt of Australia.
The men's field is led by top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and second seed David Nalbandian of Argentina, the respective 2002 Wimbledon champion and losing finalist, and Asia's number one Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand.
Hewitt receives a first-round bye before taking on either American Glenn Weiner or Goichi Motomura of Japan in the top quarter of the draw, which includes French nine seed Cyril Saulnier and eighth seed Thomas Johansson of Sweden.
Paradorn, the tournament's fourth seed, was drawn in the same half as Hewitt with fifth seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic.
Joining Nalbandian in the draw's bottom half will be Mark Philippoussis of Australia and two former Japan Open winners -- Romanian third seed Andrei Pavel and unseeded Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark.
French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina pulled out due to an ankle injury, while Zheng Jie, who became the first Chinese player to reach the fourth round of the Paris Grand Slam in May, could not get a visa for the event.