No. 3 seed Aravane Rezai faces Alla Kudryavtseva in the first round of this week’s WTA Monterrey Open

World No. 23 Aravane Rezai enters this week’s WTA Monterrey Open as the No. 3 seed, and is in search of a winning streak. Rezai hasn’t been in action since the Australian Open in January, and needs to make up for lost time. Her record for the season currently stands at 1-2, which is something that she’ll inevitably be hoping to improve upon. She will face the challenge of Alla Kudryavtseva in round one.

Kudryavtseva hasn’t managed to find any form this season, and has lost four of her five matches in 2011. Defeat here would mark a third successive first round exit for the Russian. She came close to breaking into the top fifty last year though, so shouldn’t be written off just yet.

Rezai holds a 1-0 head to head lead against Kudryavtseva, following a close contest on the grass courts of Birmingham in 2009. This result suggests that Kudryavtseva could make this a tough match for Rezai, though conditions will be entirely different here in Monterrey.