LOS ANGELES -- It's a Williams bookmark Championships with one on either end of the draw. Venus Williams did not play last year. Serena Williams did not play in the two years before that because of injuries. It will be the first time they are both in the draw.

	Pam's Picks
	Shriver Former WTA Tour pro Pam Shriver is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis throughout the Championships. Shriver, a tennis analyst for ESPN, was ranked as high as No. 3 in singles play. She won 21 singles and 112 doubles titles, including 22 Grand Slams.

Serena made an interesting decision to cancel all her tournaments the past five weeks. She was busy in L.A. making an appearance on the TV show "My Wife and Kids." So she's been having fun doing other stuff.

I suspect that given her success this year, her time off won't be a problem. On paper she has the easiest first round against Anna Smashnova, who is making her debut at the season-ending event. But Serena is probably the favorite to repeat as champion. Don't expect her to have a lot of trouble with Smashnova, who likes to get a lot of balls back and doesn't really have a weapon.

The best of the first-round matches is between Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles. Because her ranking dropped due to injury, we knew that Davenport wouldn't be seeded. But you know that no one in the top eight would want to play her in the opening round.

Davenport has played consistently well since recovering from knee surgery -- the only thing she hasn't done is to win a title. She's been in four finals and should have won three of them as she lost to Chanda Rubin in Los Angeles, Maggie Maleeva in Moscow and Patty Schnyder in Zurich.

Davenport is close to home here and loves indoor play. She's the third favorite behind Venus and Serena. She's so excited to have qualified -- I mean when you start in July and everyone else starts earning points in January, that's a hell of a start to give everybody.

Seles got an apartment in L.A. to concentrate on preparing for the Championships. So she's put a lot into this and is probably disappointed by the draw. Although, she's probably enjoyed just having a different place to train.

Davenport leads their head-to-head matchups, 9-2. Davenport's beaten Seles six times in a row. But it's a great first-round meeting and will be the live featured match tonight (10 ET, ESPN2).

Venus plays Schnyder -- kind of an awkward opponent, who along with Seles are the only lefties in the field. It will be interesting to see Venus' attitude, whether she's feeling a little bit beaten down after watching her sister fly by this year. She's been almost complacent recently. She's only lost one set out of nine to Schnyder, so Venus has a good first round. But if Venus doesn't have a positive vibe -- a want to be out there -- Seles and Davenport are in her part of the draw and they are a couple of good warriors.

Jennifer Capriati has had a really poor post-U.S. Open indoor season. She's another one you want to look for her mood and see how she's competing. She has a pretty easy first round against Italian veteran Silvia Farina Elia. The match will be an opportunity to judge if she's ready to mix it up with the Williams sisters again and end her year on the positive note that it started on in Australia.

I love the matchup between Kim Clijsters and Chanda Rubin. Clijsters struggled in the first half of the year but got things going in the second half of the season. Rubin, who along with Davenport is the comeback player of the year after knee surgery. If Rubin's playing like she did this summer, she'll give everybody a tough match.

Daniela Hantuchova is in her first Championships and faces Maleeva. Hantuchova is one of the three teenagers in the draw going up against someone who has been around pro tennis for as long as she can remember because her older sisters played.

Elena Dementieva has had a disappointing year. She just kind of limped into the Championships. She didn't progress the way she hoped. She faces Justine Henin, who can either be brilliant or she can go out there with so many shots, so many choices that she can't put it all together. Anytime she plays, though, you're going to see an entertaining match with a wide-variety of shots.

Anastasia Myskina and Jelena Dokic will face off in their sixth meeting since Hamburg in May -- that's really unusual. Dokic leads the series 3-2. Myskina is the one who has improved more. This is anybody's match, but Myskina might upset Dokic.

One word about Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo who will be absent this year. This is two straight years for Hingis, who has been out with foot problems. And Mauresmo had such a great year, it's just too bad that she's not in there.