The 1997 Gold Coast Classic was a women's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament played on outdoor hard courts at the Hope Island Resort Tennis Centre in

Hope Island, Queensland Hope Island is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Hope Island had a population of 11,186 people. The town of Boykambil is within the suburb (). The town of Santa Barbara is within the suburb (). Geography H ...

in Australia that was part of Tier III of the

1997 WTA Tour The WTA Tour is the elite tour for professional women's tennis organised by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). The WTA Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV ...

. It was the first edition of the tournament and was held from 30 December 1996 through 5 January 1997. Third-seeded

Elena Likhovtseva Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva (russian: Елена Александровна Лиховцева ; born 8 September 1975) is a Kazakhstani-born Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992, at the age of 16. Together ...

won the singles title.

Finals

Singles

defeated

Ai Sugiyama is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles t ...

3–6, 7–6, 6–3 * It was Likhovtseva's only title of the year and the 2nd of her career.

Doubles

Naoko Kijimuta Naoko Kijimuta (Japanese: 雉子牟田直子 ''Kijimuta Naoko'', born March 26, 1972) is a retired tennis player and winner of five professional doubles tournaments. She has been a representative of Japan in the Federation Cup. Career In the 19 ...

Nana Miyagi Nana Smith (born Nana Miyagi; 10 April 1971) is an American-born tennis player who played for Japan. Career Miyagi, a former top-15 player in doubles, played at all the Grand Slam tournaments in both singles and doubles – the Australian Ope ...

defeated

Ruxandra Dragomir Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie (born 24 October 1972) is a retired tennis player from Romania. She won four singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour during her career. The right-hander reached her highest individual WTA ranking on 25 August 1997 ...

Silvia Farina Silvia Farina Elia (; born 27 April 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. She won three WTA singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. ...

7–6, 6–1 * It was Kijimuta's 1st title of the year and the 3rd of her career. It was Miyagi's 1st title of the year and the 5th of her career.

External links

ITF tournament edition details

Tournament draws
{{coord, -27.8717, 153.3504, type:event_region:AU-QLD, display=title, name=Hope Island Resort Tennis Centre Brisbane International

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

January 1997 sports events in Australia December 1996 sports events in Australia