World No. 1 Kerber, 5 Top 10 in WTA Action This Week; Previews
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Top 10ers Angie Kerber, Aggie Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Dominika Cibulkova are vying for titles this week at Linz, Tianjin and Hong Kong as players also race for spots in the final eight for the WTA Finals.
ADHEREL
Here’s a look at the three events this week on the WTA tour:
GENERALI LADIES LINZ
Linz, Austria; Surface: hard
Seeds: Garbine Muguruza, Dominika Cibulkova, Madison Keys, Carla Suarez Navarro, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Kiki Bertens, Daria Kasatkina, Laura Siegemund
Floaters: Camila Giorgi, Genie Bouchard, Mona Barthel, Annika Beck, Belina Bencic
Notes: Four Top 10ers in the field and a good amount of floaters…Difficult starts for (3) Keys vs. Giorgi, (4) Suarez Navarro vs. Barthel, and (2) Cibulkova vs. (WC) Bencic…Wildcards went to seeds Cibulkova, Keys, and unseeded Bencic and Austrian Barbara Haas…It is the 30th edition of the tournament…Pavlyuchenkova beat Anna-Lena Friedsam in last year’s final…Pavlyuchenkova is the lone former champ in the field, but the previous five champs were US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova (2014), current No. 1 Angie Kerber (2013), former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka (2012), Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova (2011), and former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic (2010,’08).
PRUDENTIAL HONG KONG TENNIS OPEN
Hong Kong, SAR; Surface: hard
Seeds: Angelique Kerber, Venus Williams, Johanna Konta, Samantha Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Caroline Garcia, Jelena Jankovic, Daria Gavrilova
Floaters: Alize Cornet
Notes: The world No. 1 Kerber is the only Top 10er in the field, but throw in former No. 1s Williams, Wozniacki and Jankovic, and the Slam winner Stosur to give it some meat…Little to no floating talent…Wildcards went to Turkey’s Basak Eraydin, Chinese Taipei’s Lee Ya-Hsuan, and Hong Kong’s Zhang Ling…Jankovic (the lone former champ in the field) beat Kerber 6-1 in the third in last year’s final.
TIANJIN OPEN
Tianjin, China; Surface: hard
Seeds: Agnieszka Radwanska, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Vesnina, Timea Babos, Monica Puig, Yulia Putintseva, Zhang Shuai, Yaroslava Shvedova
Floaters: (Q) Shelby Rogers
Notes: Not a lot of floating talent, but (3) Vesnina could be hard-pressed vs. (Q) Rogers in her opener…Wildcards went to China’s Peng Shuai, Wang Yafan and Xu Yifan…Withdrawals from the field were Timea Bacsinszky, Irina-Camelia Begu, Hsieh Su-wei and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni…Radwanska beat Danka Kovinic in last year’s final…Former champs in the field are Radwanska (2015) and Alison Riske (2014).
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