A star-studded bottom quarter highlights the main draw of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, the 2024 season's first WTA 250 event.

Two of last year's most celebrated comeback players, No.2 seed Elina Svitolina and unseeded Caroline Wozniacki, will face off in a blockbuster first-round match at the very bottom of the draw.

The winner of that match could potentially face 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the second round. Raducanu is returning to Hologic WTA Tour action after eight months off tour.

Auckland 2024: Draws, prize money and everything you need to know

Meanwhile, defending champion Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open titlist, is the No.1 seed at the top of the ASB Classic draw. Gauff will attempt to become the first back-to-back Auckland champion since Julia Goerges in 2018 and 2019.

Main-draw play in Auckland will begin on Monday, January 1, and the final will take place on Sunday, January 7. 

Down in the fourth quarter of the draw, former World No.3 Svitolina will meet former World No.1 Wozniacki for the first time since 2018. Svitolina leads their head-to-head 4-1.

Svitolina was named the WTA Comeback Player of 2023 after winning the Strasbourg title, reaching the Roland Garros quarterfinals, and beating Iga Swiatek to make the Wimbledon semifinals last year. The Ukrainian finished the year back in the Top 25.

But Wozniacki also made an impression in a brief return last year. The 2018 Australian Open champion played only three events in 2023, but in the last of those, she reached the US Open Round of 16 as a wild card, beating Petra Kvitova and Jennifer Brady before losing to Gauff.

As for former Top 10 player Raducanu, she will be contesting her first match on tour since a loss to Jelena Ostapenko on the clay courts of Stuttgart in April. Raducanu will have to beat a qualifier in the first round if she wants to take on the Svitolina-Wozniacki winner in Round 2.

There are more bold-faced names in the jam-packed fourth quarter, where another of last year's successful comeback players, 2021 Roland Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, will take on Amanda Anisimova in the first round. 

Anisimova is one more player who will be making a return in Auckland after eight months off tour. The 2019 Roland Garros semifinalist will be playing her first match since Madrid in April.

At the very top of the draw in the first quarter, Gauff will face fellow American Claire Liu, ranked World No.98, in the opening round. Gauff won their only previous meeting, at Indian Wells in 2022, in straight sets.

Another American, World No.32 Emma Navarro, leads the second quarter as the No.4 seed, and she will meet Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova in the first round. Fruhvirtova won their only prior meeting, on the clay courts of Charleston in 2021.

Also in the second quarter is Rebeka Masarova, who reached her first career final in Auckland last year before falling to Gauff. Masarova will play No.7 seed Petra Martic in the first round.

Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko heads up the third quarter as the No.3 seed, and will meet a qualifier in the first round.