Cara returns

The 33-year-old Black has 54 career titles including five Grand Slams doubles and five mixed doubles titles. She is now married to her trainer Brett Stephens and is the sister of former ATP players Wayne and Byron.

Cara Black will team up with Aussie Anastasia Rodionova in Auckland, who she played with for part of 2010 and 2011.

She had an acrimonious split with her former partner, Liezel Huber, in the spring of 210. She and Huber reached No. 1 together.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams may have undergone surgery on both big toes in the last few days but the favourite to win the Australian Open remains insistent she will be fit to start 2013 where she left off this year with the WTA Championships two months ago and contest next week’s Brisbane International.

Williams, currently world No.3 but runaway favourite for the Australian Open that begins on January 14, got Brisbane tournament officials worried when she sent her apologies to the organisers of this Thursday’s World Tennis Invitation exhibition tournament at the Thai resort town of Hua Hin.

However an extra couple of days of recovery will be sufficient to get Williams ready for the Brisbane event that starts on December 30 at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

The Wimbledon, Olympic, US Open and WTA champion leads the betting with Australian bookmakers to win a sixth Australian Open singles title with world no.1 Victoria Azarenka in second spot and French Open champion Maria Sharapova third.

Brisbane International tournament director Cameron Pearson has talked to Serena’s long term agent Jill Smoller and was sufficiently confident that the 31 year-old would be fit to play that he said: “She is probably not quite ready for Thailand, but they’ve assured me she will be ready for Brisbane.

“Serena is the rockstar of tennis. We certainly want to see her in Brisbane and after talking with her manager I’m 100 per cent confident she will be here,” Pearson said.

“She had a minor procedure done on her toes, which was an ongoing complaint.”
By virtue of its early season position, the Brisbane has a history of big name withdrawals.

Last year Maria Sharapova was forced to pull out while Serena quit after the quarterfinals, citing an injured ankle. — Daily Tennis News Wire.