Serena returns

Signing Serena Williams for January’s ASB Classic won’t stop the tournament getting another top 10 player.

The Auckland WTA tournament has often been hampered by the rule that they can only secure one player ranked inside the top 10 each year.

Williams is No 8 in the world, which would usually preclude Classic tournament director Karl Budge from chasing a number of other big name stars.

However, Budge says the 37-year-old is exempt from the top 10 rule.

‘‘Her, Venus [Williams] and Maria Sharapova are covered by and exception rule for service,’’ Budge said. ‘‘So whether she’s No 1 or 85 in the world, it doesn’t make a difference for us.

‘‘That’s why we’re pretty confident she won’t be our top seed, depending on whether she wins the US Open.’’

Having already locked in the biggest name in women’s tennis and the ability to go after another super star, Budge is in a perfect position and it’s likely to be a case of him having to turn players down, rather than asking them to come.

‘‘There are probably another two that we might have a little sniff at, just depending on how things go,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re sitting pretty happily at the moment. The hard one for us is how we deliver some messages to people, which will be hard messages.

‘‘There are a lot of great players who’ve been here before, that want to come, but we may not be able to do what we’ve done in the past and that’s a tough one for us.

‘‘You work hard to build these relationships and you do everything you can to maintain them, but we are going to have to have some interesting conversations over the next few months.’’

Those players who might be let down could be Caroline Wozniacki if she remains in the top 10, or defending champion Julia Georges.

There would be a real appetite for people to see the Canadian Bianca Andreescu back in Auckland in January. It was at the Classic this year where she made her big breakthrough as a player and has gone on to win prestigious tournaments at Indian Wells and Toronto.

She is ranked 15 in the world and with hardly any points to defend over the rest of 2019 it looks likely to finish the year inside the top 10.

Venus Williams’s career is clearly coming towards its end. She is down at 52 in the world rankings, but did beat world No 5 Kiki Bertens in Cincinnati last week.

However, those big moments are becoming less frequent and if