Top women split up for warm-up events
MELBOURNE • World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams will spearhead the two WTA tournaments in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open, with the top 32-ranked women split evenly across the simultaneous events, the organisers said yesterday.
The onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced a radical change to how the early 2021 tennis season will look, with the Australian Open pushed back three weeks to Feb 8.
Players will arrive in Australia from Jan 15 and undergo a mandatory two-week quarantine before two WTA 500 and two ATP 250 events are held alongside the ATP Cup, all at Melbourne Park.
Organisers have branded it the Melbourne Summer Series and named each tournament after areas of Victoria state. That will see the women play the Gippsland Trophy and Yarra Valley Classic from Jan 31-Feb 6, marking 24-year-old Barty’s first appearance in 11 months after the Australian opted out of the US and European swing last year over coronavirus fears.
American Serena Williams, 39, will also return to competitive action after exiting the French Open with an injury and would hope to get some matches under her belt before embarking on another bid for a record-equalling 24th Major singles title.
As well as Williams, the likes of world No. 2 Simona Halep, defending Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and previous Australian Open winners Naomi Osaka, Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber will take part.
The leading men’s stars, including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, will compete in the 12-team ATP Cup, which will be run at the same time and at the same venue.
Those who did not qualify will play in two ATP 250 tournaments – the Great Ocean Road Open and Murray River Open, featuring top names including David Goffin, Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov and Nick Kyrgios.
“There’s no doubt this will be an historic week of tennis, and is the biggest-ever Australian Open lead-in week we have seen,” said Tennis Australia’s major events chief Cameron Pearson.
“While we know the circumstances are unique this year, it is a huge coup to secure such strong playing fields.”
At the ongoing WTA 500 event in Abu Dhabi yesterday, American top seed Kenin overcame Chinese Yang Zhaoxuan 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, while two-time Grand Slam winner and fifth seed Garbine Muguruza beat France’s Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-4.
Third-seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova beat Greece’s Despina Papamichail 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) but Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-wei upset eighth-seeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).
Belgian Elise Mertens withdrew yesterday with a right shoulder injury hours before her opening match. The world No. 20 was drawn to meet Alize Cornet and her replacement, Greek lucky loser Valentini Grammatikopoulou, lost 6-2, 6-2 to the Frenchwoman.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS