'I'm excited about coming to Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to playing Serena'

Monica Seles described winning the Olympic bronze medal as one of the highlights of her career in a tournament that capped two 'fantastic' weeks for her.

The 26-year-old former world number one was truly happy that she had managed to come away with a medal in Sydney after missing out four years ago in Atlanta when she lost to Jana Novotna in an epic 2.5-hour quarter-final battle.

'It's the first medal I have ever won. Unfortunately, I had to play Venus [Williams] in the semi-finals but I am really happy to win a bronze,' said the world number five, who will take on Serena Williams tonight in the Nortel Networks Challenge at Victoria Park.

'I'm very excited about coming back to Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to playing Serena. She was my teammate [in Sydney] and obviously she won the gold in doubles. The last time time we played was in the US Open quarter-final [in 1999 when Serena won the title] and we had a tough three-set match. I'm happy to be playing in Victoria Park and it has been quite a few years since I last played there.

'Obviously you always try to win the gold medal but I had a very tough match against Venus in the semi-finals. I had to come back the next day but I really wanted to win the bronze. So I am very happy as it's my first medal of any kind,' said the Yugoslavian-born American, who beat Jelena Dokic for the bronze.

Seles came into the Sydney tournament as the third seed and knew it would be a tough battle all the way to the bronze medal playoff.