The US invasion at the Hobart International has extended to the doubles draw, where Sloane Stephens and Taylor Townsend join 16-team field headed by top seeds Cara Black and Saisai Zheng.
Stephens, one of five Americans in the singles draw, has never played alongside 18-year-old Townsend despite their best efforts to pair up in the past.
“We’ve never played together before,” Stephens said. “We tried to play a lot last season, so this year we decided we were going to make it happen. I’m really looking forward to it.”
The Americans face No.3 seeds Darija Jurak and Megan Moulton-Levy in the opener.
Australia is well-represented in the draw, with Olivia Rogowska joining Monique Adamczak to take on Croatian-Australian Ajla Tomljanovic and British No.1 Heather Watson In the first round.
Storm Sanders and Alexandra Nancarrow face the vastly experienced Lisa Raymond and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Doubles first round draw (PDF):
C Black (ZIM) & S Zheng (CHN) (1) v
V Diatchenko (RUS) & M Niculescu (ROU)
J Cepelova (SVK) & A Rosolska (POL) v
C Chuang (TPE) & E Hrdinova (CZE)
D Jurak (CRO) & M Moulton-Levy (USA) (3) v
S Stephens (USA) & T Townsend (USA)
M Adamczak (AUS) & O Rogowska (AUS) v
A Tomljanovic (CRO) & H Watson (GBR)
S Soler-Espinosa (ESP) & M Torró-Flor (ESP) v
C Hsu (TPE) & N Melichar (USA)
C Chan (TPE) & O Kalashnikova (GEO) v
L Arruabarrena (ESP) & I Olaru (ROU) (4)
A Nancarrow (AUS) & S Sanders (AUS) v
M Lucic-Baroni (CRO) & L Raymond (USA)
K Bertens (NED) & J Larsson (SWE) v
K Jans-Ignacik (POL) / A Klepac (SLO) (2)