Now In Ring 3, It’s Manhattan Beach

Tennis’ version of the Freeway Series begins today, when most of the players participating in the Toshiba Tennis Classic at Carlsbad pack up and hit the northbound lanes for Manhattan Beach and the Acura Classic.

The traveling circus that is the professional tennis tour has moved, in successive weeks, from Palo Alto to Carlsbad to this week’s venue at the Manhattan Country Club.

Its most colorful performers have come along. Five of the women ranked in the top 10 have entered at Manhattan Beach, including No. 1 Martina Hingis, No. 3 Monica Seles, No. 5 Amanda Coetzer, No. 7 Lindsay Davenport and No. 8 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Palo Alto, Carlsbad and Manhattan Beach, all hard-court tournaments, serve as a prelude to the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 25 at New York. It is the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, and Hingis’ chance to win her third Grand Slam singles title.

Hingis and Seles renew what has evolved into a season-long rivalry. Hingis, 16, defeated Seles, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, on Sunday in the final at Carlsbad in their third final matchup this year.

Both have first-round byes at Manhattan Beach.

Seles has the troublesome Coetzer in her half of the draw. The two met in the semifinals at Carlsbad, where Coetzer gave Seles trouble before losing.

Hingis has Davenport and ninth-seeded Anke Huber in her half of the draw.

Davenport won last year’s event, only weeks after she won the Olympic title. Although her play this year has been erratic, Davenport’s record on hard courts reflects a comfort level with the surface. She’s 33-10 overall but 20-4 on hard courts.

The tournament’s two wild cards went to two of the WTA Tour’s fleet of teenage standouts, No. 64 Venus Williams and No. 26 Anna Kournikova. The two are in Hingis’ half of the draw. Kournikova will play Huber in the first round.

Joining Williams will be her sister, Serena, who has played only two tournaments this season. The younger Williams got through qualifying Sunday to advance into the main draw of the tournament.

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Acura Classic

CENTER COURT

Beginning 7 p.m.

* Chanda Rubin vs. Sandrine Testud

* Magdalena Maleeva vs. Nathalie Tauziat

SEEDED PLAYERS

No. 1 Martina Hingis

No. 2 Monica Seles

No. 3 Amanda Coetzer

No. 4 Lindsay Davenport

No. 5 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario

No. 6 Anke Huber

No. 7 Irina Spirlea

No. 8 Kimberly Po

OTHERS

Sabine Appelman, Belgium; Yayuk Basuki, Indonesia; Ruxandra Dragomir, Romania; Amy Frazier, United States; Anna Kournikova, Russia; Elena Likhovtseva, Kazakhstan; Magdalena Maleeva, Bulgaria; Chanda Rubin, United States; Naoko Sawamatsu, Japan; Anne Sidot, France; Ai Sugiyama, Japan; Helena Sukova, Czech Republic; Nathalie Tauziat, France; Sandrine Testud, France; Venus Williams, United States; Natasha Zvereva, Belarus.