Wozniacki, Bouchard to Participate in Auckland Open

Thursday, 22 November 2018, 5:45 am Suneer Chowdhary

Caroline Wozniacki v Kimberly Birrell Predictions, H2H, Preview & Tips — Photo credit Kulitat on Visual Hunt CC BY-SA

Caroline Wozniacki will return to the WTA Auckland Open in 2019 as her season opener after having finished runner-up last year at the tournament.

The former world number one and 2018 Australian Open winner lost to Julia Goerges in the final last year and will look to go the distance this time when she takes to court in Auckland.

The Dane will be the top player at the Auckland Open, which is a WTA International event, a competition that permits just one top-10 player in the line-up. Writing on her Facebook page, Wozniacki said:

“I cant wait to start my 2019 year in one of my favourite cities for the ASB Classic. Such a fun place to play. Going one better in 2019! See my kiwi fans soon.”

Wozniacki will be joined by previous winners Venus Williams and Goerges, along with Victoria Azarenka and Eugenie Bouchard, both of whom are looking to press further in the WTA Rankings. Azarenka has fallen to number 51st in the world while Bouchard is currently ranked 88th.

I’m coming to Auckland!!! Dec 31st – Jan 6th! @ASB_Classic #auckland ☺️☺️☺️ pic.twitter.com/EXWkJvsvRj

— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) November 21, 2018

Despite her fall in the rankings, Bouchard will be one of the top draws, what with her immense social media following and fans from all over the world. Bouchard, whose on-court exploits haven’t quite matched up to her performance at the 2014 Wimbledon where she made it to the final before losing to Petra Kvitova, ended 2018 on a bright note by making it to the semi-final at the Luxembourg Open.

Tournament Director Karl Budge said he looked forward to all these top tennis players to participate in the Auckland Open, pointing to the presence of three former world number one women along with three Grand Slam winners.

He added:

“It will give us an opening round like we’ve never seen before. We are going to have to split Caroline, Goerges, Venus, Vika and Genie across two sessions. I am not sure we have had star power like that in one session as early as this before.”

The Auckland Open begins from December 31, 2018.

About Suneer Chowdhary 2086 Articles

Suneer is a Mumbai-based freelance sports journalist with a special affinity towards cricket and tennis. He has also covered six ICC tournaments including Cricket World Cups and Champions Trophy.