Svitolina, Muguruza Top Seeds At WTA Chicago; Clijsters Returns

With a week before the big money event at Indian Wells, many of top women are in Illinois this week preparing at the new WTA 500 event in Chicago.

The top seed is Elina Svitolina who won the earlier Chicago event just before the US Open. The Ukrainian has won nine of her last ten but dropped a stunner in the US Open quarterfinals to Leylah Fernandez in a final set breaker.

Two-time Slam winner Garbine Muguruza in seeded second, followed by gold medalist Belinda Bencic, French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Rybakina, Elise Mertens, Ons Jabeur and Bianca Andreescu.

Svitolina could face Amanda Anismova in her opener after a bye. She could meet Jabeur in the quarterfinals. Bencic is projected to face Rybakina, Mertens could take on Pavlyuchenkova and Muguruza would battle Andreescu.

After injury setbacks, former No. 1 Kim Clijsters resumes her comeback to the sport. The Belgian went 0-3 in three events last year. This will be her first match since a 3-set loss last year at the US Open to Ekatarina Alexandrova. She’ll open against Su-Wei Hsieh with Jabeur getting the winner.

Jessica Pegula, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Ajla Tomljanovic, Anett Kontaveit, Jil Teichmann, Danielle Collins and Victoria Azarenka are also in the 56-draw.