For the first time all eight seeds for January's ASB tennis classic have top 30 rankings and the tournament's director Brenda Perry says that promises some top first round match ups.
Italy's Flavia Pennetta will head the field in her first time in the main draw in Auckland and newcomer Li Na of China is the second seed.
Pennetta's ranked 12th in the world, three ahead of Li Na who made the US Open quarter-finals.
The other seeds are Italian, Francesca Schiavione, Virginie Razzano of France, Elena Vesnina of Russia, Aravane Rezai of France, Spain's Annabel Medina Garrigues and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Brenda Perry says other notable entrants include a former top five-ranked Russian, Anna Chakvedtadze, and the Indian star Sania Mirza.
She says 14 of the 24 direct entrants have WTA singles titles.
Two of the four wildcard entries are expected to be filled by New Zealanders Marina Erakovic and Sacha Jones and there are four slots for qualifiers.
