Halep, 5 of Top 10 in New Haven; WTA/ATP Previews

CONNECTICUT OPEN PRESENTED BY UNITED TECHNOLOGIES
New Haven, Conn.; Surface: hard

Seeds: Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Lucie Safarova, Karolina Pliskova, Timea Bacsinszky, Agnieszka Radwanska, Sara Errani

Floaters: Kristina Mladenovic, Caroline Garcia, Genie Bouchard, CoCo Vandeweghe, Alize Cornet, Madison Keys

Notes: Five of the Top 10 in New Haven this week…Lots of floating talent…The Top 2 seeds receive opening-round byes…Potential tough starts for (8) Errani vs. Mladenovic, (6) Bacsinszky vs. Garcia, the slumping (7) Radwanska vs. the booming Vandeweghe, and (2) Kvitova vs. Keys…Wildcards were awarded to Wozniacki, Radwanska, Alison Riske and Lucie Safarova…Withdrawing from the event were Belinda Bencic, Ekaterina Makarova and Sloane Stephens…Kvitova is the defending champ, defeating Magdalena Rybarikova in last year’s final…Former champs in the final are Kvitova (2014,’12), Halep (2013), and the four-time champ Wozniacki (2011-08).

WINSTON-SALEM OPEN
Winston-Salem, N.C.; Surface: hard

Seeds: Gilles Simon, Kevin Anderson, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Viktor Troicki, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Thomaz Bellucci, Sam Querrey, Borna Coric, Benoit Paire, Joao Sousa, Jiri Vesely, Pablo Andujar, Steve Johnson, Marcos Baghdatis, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Jerzy Janowicz

Floaters: Sergiy Stakhovsky, Tommy Haas, Alexandr “The Dog” Dolgopolov, Lukas Rosol, Ernests Gulbis

Notes: No Top 10 players but four of the Top 20…All 16 seeds receive first-round byes…Tough starts for (14) Baghdatis vs. Stakhovsky, (10) Sousa vs. (WC) Haas, (15) Gabashvili vs. the hot-handed Dog, and (16) Janowicz vs. either Rosol or Gulbis…In addition to Haas, wildcards went to Anderson, Jared Donaldson and Simon…Pulling from the event were Roberto Bautista Agut, Victor Estrella Burgos, David Goffin, Marcel Granollers, Juan Monaco, Gilles Muller and Albert Ramos-Vinolas…Rosol, the lone former champ in the field, in last year’s final saved two match points against Janowicz to claim the title.