Three top-10 players have confirmed their participation for the 2019 edition of the St. Petersburg Ladies Open Trophy – Petra Kvitova, Kiki Bertens, and the Russian Daria Kasatkina.
Kvitova is returning to St. Petersburg as the defending champion. She had a remarkable run in 2018, winning a total of five singles titles. While she failed to a win a Grand Slam, she did win other major events like the WTA Doha and the Madrid Open.
As for Bertens and Kasatkina, the two players finished the year respectively as the World No. 9 and the World No. 10. Bertens won three titles in total while Kasatkina won only one tournament – the Kremlin Cup. That win propelled her into the top 10 and she will be hoping to move up further in the rankings.
Among the aforementioned three players, Kasatkina and Kvitova were actively involved in the previous edition of the tournament. Between the two, it was the Czech who proved to be the better player by reaching the final and defeating Kristina Mladenovic – the same player who edged past Kasatkina in the semis.
The former World No. 1 and local favorite Maria Sharapova is also set to feature in the 2019 WTA St. Petersburg. The 2014 French Open champion started the season as the World No. 59 and broke into the top 30 after persistent runs in the tour.
She failed to win a trophy in 2018 although; she did reach the penultimate rounds in tournaments like the Italian Open, WTA Shenzhen, and the Roland Garros.
This star-studded line-up will also feature players like Aryna Sabalenka and Julia Goerges – both of whom respectively reached their career-high singles ranking in 2018.
The intensity of the competition is further enhanced with the addition of other big names like Carla Suarez Navarro, the 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko, Swiss No. 1 Timea Bacsinszky, former top 10 player Dominika Cibulkova and the last year’s WTA St. Petersburg runner-up Kristina Mladenovic.
The tournament will start on January 28, 2019, with the final set to be played on February 3. The complete list of participants for this WTA Premier event is as follows:
Petra Kvitova, Daria Kasatkina, Kiki Bertens, Jelena Ostapenko, Aryna Sabalenka, Carla Suarez Navarro, Julia Goerges, Dominika Cibulkova, Timea Bacsinszky, Maria Sharapova, Kristina Mladenovic, Camila Giorgi, Katerina Siniakova, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Daria Gavrilova, Donna Vekic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Maria Sakkari, Yulia Putintseva and Alize Cornet.
The field will also see the addition of four qualifiers and four wildcards right before the main draw begins in St. Petersburg.
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