WTA Brisbane: Start with Barty and Venus Williams
Ashleigh Barty will lead the strong field at the WTA Premier Tournament in Brisbane. Venus Williams gets a wildcard for the tournament in Australia.
by Robert M. Frank
last edit: Nov 26, 2019, 08:46 pm
Six of the ten top ten players will participate in Brisbane International. Among them is local hero and favorite Ashleigh Barty (WTA 1). Behind them, with the defending champion Karolina Pliskova (ATP 2) and Naomi Osaka (ATP 3), the top three of the WTA World Ranking complete the field of the hard court tournament. Elina Svitolina (WTA 6), winner of 2017, Petra Kvitova (WTA 7) and Kiki Bertens (WTA 9) complete the list of the top 10 players.
Also in the northeast of Australia are next to Angelique Kerber (WTA 20) and the former Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur (WTA 99) from Australia also Venus Williams (WTA 53). On Tuesday it was confirmed that the former world number one will participate in the event from 6 to 12 January with a wildcard.
Williams wants to get used to hot conditions
"After so many years on the tour, it's good to be involved in new tournaments and to experience a different city, Brisbane International is always so highly regarded by WTA players, so I wanted to see it for myself," Venus told WTA. The 49-time WTA title holder also wants to acclimatize in Brisbane for the Australian Open, which starts on January 20. "I know it will be hot in January, and these are exactly the conditions I need to get used to in preparing for the Australian Open," said the 39-year-old American, who served in Sydney and Sydney in previous years Auckland had opened the year.
While Brisbane has a top player field, the concurrent WTA International tournaments in both Shenzhen, China and Auckland, New Zealand, have a not-so-high-caliber field. Bianca Andreescu (WTA 5) Serena Williams (WTA 10), defending champion Julia Görges (WTA 28) and Cori Hauff (WTA 68) compete in Auckland .