Harriet Dart, Katie Boulter and Heather Watson will all be in action at the 2019 WTA Monterrey Open that kick-starts from Monday, April 1.
Boulter, who is the highest-ranked British player among them at 89, will hope to shrug off a middling start to her season as she takes on the fifth-seeded and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in her opening round match.
The former world number one Azarenka has been trying to push on in the WTA rankings after returning back from her off-court issues, and would pose a very tough challenge for the British player. Boulter had earlier began her year with a string of four defeats in a row at the Hopman Cup and Hobart International but followed it up with four victories at the Fed Cup in February.
A second round exit at Acapulco was followed by two successive defeats in Indian Wells and Miami in the qualifiers.
On the other hand, Watson, a former top-40 player, was a quarter-finalist at the Monterrey Open last year but she has a tough challenge in front of her this season. She takes on second seeded Garbine Muguruza in her opening round match at Monterrey and while her Spaniard opponent hasn’t been in the best of form, Watson’s already underwhelming season could be tested.
Watson is yet to win a main draw match this year, and making it worse are the losses in the qualifiers at Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami. Can she script a turnaround here?
Dart had made the main draw of the Australian Open earlier this year but was blanked in her opening round match by Maria Sharapova, who won 6-0, 6-0. Since then she has been away from action, playing straightaway in the qualifiers at Miami where she went down in her opener and then making it to the semi-finals at an ITF tournament in Croissy-Beaubourg.
Another British player Katie Swan was dumped out in the opening qualifier round in Monterrey by Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
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