Halep, 3 Top 10ers, Venus Williams in St. Pete; WTA Previews

ST. PETERSBURG LADIES TROPHY
St. Petersburg, Russia; surface: hard
ADHEREL
Seeds: Simona Halep, Dominika Cibulkova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, Elena Vesnina, Roberta Vinci, Kiki Bertens, Daria Kasatkina

Floaters: Belinda Bencic, Ana Konjuh, Timea Babo, Annika Beck, Daria Gavrilova, Ekaterina Makirova, Alize Cornet

Notes: Three Top 10ers in the field, in addition to Australian Open runner-up and former No. 1 Venus Williams…The Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…Potential tough starts for (1) Halep after a bye vs. Konjuh, (8) Kasatkina vs. Bencic, (6) Vinci vs. Babos, (7) Bertens vs. Beck, (3) Kuznetsova after a bye vs. Gavrilova…Wildcards went to Russians Anna Kalinskaya and Natalia Vikhlyantseva…Barbora Strycova pulled from the field…Vinci beat Bencic in last year’s final…Former champions in the field are Vinci (2016) and Jelena Ostapenko (2015).

TAIWAN OPEN
Taipei, Taiwan; surface: indoor hard

Seeds: Elina Svitolina, Samantha Stosur, Caroline Garcia, Anastasija Sevastova, Katerina Siniakova, Misaki Doi, Shelby Rogers, Jelena Jankovic

Floaters: Shuai Peng, (WC) Lucie Safarova

Notes: No Top 10ers in the field, but a former No. 1 and a Slam winner…Not a lot of floating talent as the talent takes a break after the Aussie Open…Pulling from the event were Catherine Bellis, Kristina Kucova, Sabine Lisicki, Christina McHale, Pauline Parmentier, and Alison Riske…Venus Williams beat Doi in last year’s final.

You Might Like:
World No. 1 Kerber Falls To Venus, Halep Upset Wednesday at Miami Open
Halep Heads Strong Dubai; U.S. Frenzy in Delray: ATP/WTA Previews
Venus Williams Makes Return In Washington; Halep, Raducanu In Field
WTA Finals Groups: Halep With No Slam Winners In Red; Venus, Muguruza In White
Sharapova Leads in Paris; WTA Previews This Week